Yes I am an Animal
by SlimJames
Summary: Iroh is dead; Zuko is now truly alone. How will the Fire Prince manage to survive without his Uncle to guide him? Rated M for language. First Fic. Reviews welcome.
1. Chapter 1

_Okay, this is an idea that was bouncing around in my head for a while. It always seemed to me that Zuko was the one character in Avatar that could never make a truly meaningful decision for himself; he always followed along with what someone else wanted him to do. My question is, what if Zuko lost Iroh, the person who basically acted as his moral compass, before he had grown enough to develop as his own person. Story events take place after **The Chase**._

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender and do not seek to profit from writing this in any way. Please do not sue!_

Yes, I am an Animal

Chapter 1

"… which just goes back to what I was saying earlier, my arrest was a total injustice."

A voice. Loud, indignant, annoying, inescapable.

"An injustice? _Really_? Explain it all to me again, just so that I can get a better grasp of the whole situation."

'_Another one decides to join in. Oh joy_.' As if one man's incessant rambling about how the entire world has wronged him was not entertaining enough, now the floor was open to second opinions. The brooding young man in the corner attempted to push himself even deeper into the shadows which already obscured him from view. He did not even bother to raise his head in order to see who this new voice belonged to.

"Bastard! I'm here trying to tell you all about how corrupt the Earth Kingdom 'justice' system is, and you're going to sit there and mock me?"

The implied threat in that statement was apparent to all of the thirty-odd men within hearing distance of the verbal exchange. The marked increase in the room's tension was enough to momentarily shake the young man from his melancholy. He lifted his head high enough to cast a wary eye in the direction of the disturbance. In the event that things took a turn for the worse, it wouldn't be prudent to be caught unawares.

The narrator of the tale of woe- a thick necked and, currently, red-faced man who sported a chin beard which appeared to be two sizes too small for his face- shot a venom filled glare at his companion. His counterpart- a sly looking, rodent faced man who sported scar which curved around the edge of his mouth- returned the look evenly, seemingly unaware of the insinuation of violence present in the other man's tone. By the young observer's reckoning however, the rodent face was not oblivious to the possible danger, he was just unconcerned.

Truth be told, there was really no need for anyone to be all that anxious over the possibility of violence for the simple reason that the setting that they were all in would not allow for much of a fight. All of the men were shackled hand and foot in the cramped confines of an Earth Kingdom prisoner barge. Over thirty men and boys were crammed together in a space which, in reality, was suited to hold only half that number.

The men shackled beneath the decks of the prison barge, upon realizing that the possibility of a fight breaking out _now_ would be highly improbable, slowly began to let down their guards. The tension in the hold dropped considerably as the convicts fell back into their original state of melancholic silence.

Silence. The young man both relished and loathed the silence that surrounded him. The silence allowed him time to gather himself. He had been taught that, upon finding himself in new and potentially dangerous situations, to become acquainted with his surroundings, to analyze his options and formulate plans for the future. The quiet helped him to concentrate; he had been taught that more often than not, concentration and forethought were the keys to survival.

But the hush that had fallen over the men down in the hold was both a cherished friend and menacing specter for the Young Man. True, the silence allowed the Young Man the opportunity to think, to plan on ways to protect him and to survive this new trial that the Spirits, in their infinite and utterly unknowable wisdom, has decided to foist upon him. And it is true that the Young Prisoner did think, but he did not, _could not_ think of the things that would help him survive this trial.

The only thing that he could think of was how he had failed. The silence allowed the Young Man the time to remember how he had failed in every single thing he had ever tried to attempt. He had failed in his duties as a son. He had failed to preserve his honor. He had failed to keep all of his grand promises to himself and his mother. He had failed his nation. He had failed his family. And now, he had failed to protect the only person who had stood by him through all of his pain, all of his hardship, all of his misery. And now the only thing that occupied the mind of the Young Man was his own weakness and how, in the end, he was powerless to save his last anchor to the world.

The Young Man twirled a White Lotus Pai Sho tile between his fingers. He could feel his guts as well as the scar that covered the left side of his face burning with the anger he directed at himself for his past failures. Damn it! Why? Why wasn't he able to do anything about anything? Why was it that _he_ the one who had to go on? Over and over, one statement rang in the young man's mind.

'_He deserved better…'_

"UP, UP, UP! EVERYONE OUT RIGHT NOW!"

A strong pair of calloused hands roughly roused Young Prisoner from his uneasy sleep. All things considered, he was not all that disappointed at the invasion of his slumber; his dreams had been filled malevolent golden eyes and blue fire. By comparison, the harsh shouts of the prison barge's guards were a welcome alternative. The Young Prisoner surmised from the amount of commotion that was going on outside of the holding cell that the vessel must have gotten to wherever it was they were going.

Still chained together, the prisoners were quickly hustled from the hold to the upper decks of the ship. Those who were sick or weakened from the less than stellar conditions that they had been forced to travel under were encouraged to keep pace with the rest of the line by blows from the heavy truncheons carried by the guards. After about five minutes all of the prisoners had been gathered into a relatively straight line.

Before the unwashed assemblage stood a thin man who radiated an imperious aura. The man was dressed in what appeared to be a modified version of an Earth Kingdom army officer's uniform and was flanked by two burly subordinates dressed in a similar fashion.

"Greetings. I am Major Zhang-Hsu, commandant of the Jade Passage regional prison of the Earth Kingdom's Songhay dominion."

At this point the commandant paused and took the opportunity to look at each individual convict with what the Young Prisoner assumed was intended to be an intimidating look. Whatever Zhang-Hsu's intentions were, they were of no concern to the men and boys shackled before him. He received nothing but empty stares and angry glares in return. The message was clear; they were _not_ about to be frightened by the facial expressions of some backwater prison official.

Major Zhang-Hsu, for his part, seemed not to notice the looks of death that were being sent his way and continued with his speech.

"You are all here," he began, "Because, by your actions, you have proven yourselves unfit to live in proper society."

The major began to walk down the line of prisoners. The Young Prisoner couldn't help but feel slightly impressed at the at the short man's ability to look down his nose even at the prisoners who were taller than him. That kind of arrogance could give any Fire Nation courtier a run for their money.

"You are murderers! You are rapists! Thieves! Con artists! Highwaymen! Pickpockets and deserters! As criminals you have shown that you are incapable of serving the greater good of the Earth Kingdom!"

At this point the major stopped his tirade and his face broke into a wide, predatory smile. The Young Prisoner could sense that he was not going to like the next thing that came out of Zhang-Hsu's mouth.

"But rejoice!" He began. "All is not lost. Each of you has the opportunity to redeem himself, for here at Jade Passage you all are offered the opportunity to repay your debts to society. Before you arrived here your lives were meaningless; now you have the chance to help your homeland win the war against the Fire Nation!"

"You all have been given another chance at life, be sure not to waste it."

And with that, Major Zhang-Hsu turned on his heel and walked back down the gangplank and onto the shore.

Once the commandant was safely ashore one of the guards raised his voice.

"Alright maggots, shows over. All of you queue up, single file, and if we hear any talking rest assured that you _will_ regret it!"

With that, the line of prisoners was quickly jostled off the ship and towards the prison complex.

The experience of being processed was something which the Young Prisoner could have definitely done without. Having to strip naked in room full of other, similarly naked, men and submit to having his body cavities searched was added to an already lengthy mental list of personal indignities that he had been forced to suffer through for the past three years.

As he reclined on the top bunk of a bed situated close to the center of the prisoner's barracks, near the iron woodstoves, he absently ran his hand across his freshly shaven head and sighed. Just when he was starting to get used to having hair again, it had to be cut off. Damn prison regulations! It wasn't enough that they took his freedom, they had to take his _hair_ too?

The Young Prisoner knew indulging in self-pity about something as trivial as the loss of his hair was both pathetic and useless, but really, at this point, who could blame him for wanting to feel just a little bit sorry for himself? Hell, he'd earned the right to a bit of self-pitying. It's not as if he was going to make a habit out of it.

So immersed was the Young Prisoner in his internal monologue that he did not initially notice that someone was making his way right towards him.

"Hey Scarface. Get off that bunk, its mine."

The Young Prisoner recognized the voice, but could not place a face to it. He looked to his left to see who it was that presumed to address him and found himself face to face with one of his fellow convicts. That's where he recognized the voice! It was none other than thick neck from the prison barge.

The Young Prisoner slowly rolled himself off of the bunk and landed on the floor. Thick Neck was standing about an arm's length away from him and wore a decidedly unpleasant smirk on his doughy face.

"And just who are you supposed to be," the Young Prisoner spat. He was really not in the mood for idiots like this eating into what little personal time he was afforded in a place like this.

Thick Neck, however, seemed to take the Young Prisoner's obvious displeasure as a source of amusement, rather than as the warning that it was.

The large man chuckled.

"Didn't you hear me boy," he began. "I'm the man whose bunk you stole. Now be a good lad and move along someplace else."

The condescension in Thick Neck's voice was as thick as a bowl of the Water Tribe's Five Flavor Soup.

The Young Prisoner glared at the larger man. His scar began to get an all too familiar burning sensation. He could feel the simmering annoyance in his gut boiling over into anger. The Young Prisoner may have fallen from his former glory, but Agni damn him if he was going to let some fat, inbred, back country _peasant_talk to him like that.

The Young Prisoner crossed his arms and stuffed as much haughty attitude as he could into his next statement.

"Too bad! I don't feel like moving."

He might not officially be a prince anymore, but at the very least he remembered how to talk like one.

Thick Neck stared at the young man as if the latter had just sprouted a second head. This initial bewildered expression was soon replaced by one which held nothing but the promise of pain for the Young Prisoner.

Any prisoners who had previously been standing in the aisle between the Young Prisoner and his opponent quickly made themselves scarce. Like wild animals who flee from the forests because they sense the coming of a flood, so innate animalistic instinct told everyone in the barracks that things were about to get violent.

Thick Neck methodically cracked his knuckles. "You arrogant little shit," he said. "All you had to do was to give up the bunk like a good boy." He shook his head in mock pity as he saw his young opponent drop down into a fighting stance. "But now, you've gone and made things worse for yourself."

Now, the Young Prisoner knew that he really should not be doing what he knew he was about to do. In fact, the logical part of his brain was already cursing him for being twelve different kinds of an idiot. He had never been to prison before, but he had enough sense to know that fights disrupted the day-to-day order of facilities like this, and the guards would not handle disruptions pleasantly. Being labeled as troublemaker on his first day at Jade Passage would not win him any friends amongst the prison administration.

Then, of course, was the fact that he was about to fight someone who was twice his size and weight. Under normal circumstances the other man's physical advantages would not have mattered all that much; the Young Prisoner could have left him a smoldering corpse in a matter of seconds. However, bending was definitely out of the question. He was not just an inmate in prison, but an _Earth Kingdom_ prison. Forget revealing himself as a firebender, revealing that he was a bender of any kind would be like wearing a giant sign around his neck that said 'kill me.'

The Young Prisoner found that he would not be given any more time to consider the consequences of his actions as Thick Neck practically strutted towards him as if the outcome of the fight was a foregone conclusion. The fat man was obviously underestimating his much smaller opponent.

"What's the matter, afraid to make a move after all of that big talk," Thick Neck jeered while leaning into the Young Prisoner's face. The dare was obvious.

Rather than replying verbally, the Young Prisoner's hands shot upwards to grab the collar of the other man's shirt. He had just enough time to register the look of surprise and confusion on Thick Neck's face before he slammed his head into the other man's face.

Thick Neck reeled in pain, his hands clutching his nose and mouth. The Young Prisoner saw blood streaming from between Thick Neck's fingers; he smirked in satisfaction.

"You fucking bastard!! I'll kill you for this!" Gone was the conceited air that the fat inmate had worn before- in its place was a look of pure murder.

"You've only got yourself to blame for leaving yourself that open to an attack fool," the Young Prisoner coldly responded as he dropped back down into a fighting stance.

With a yell of rage, Thick Neck charged.

The Young Prisoner and Thick Neck were focused totally on one another. Consequently, they were completely oblivious to the fact that their brawl had attracted a sizable crowd of interested inmates. One pair of eyes- belonging to a certain inmate known as Jiji- was very interested indeed.

He had remembered seeing the younger of the two combatants in the hold of the prison barge. The youngster hadn't made much of an impression; he had spent most of the time curled up in the shadows, fidgeting with what looked like a Pai Sho tile. Truthfully the only reason why Jiji remembered the lad at all was due to the fact that it looked like somebody had tried to burn off half of the kid's face. Nope, there was no forgetting something as distinctive as that.

Seeing the kid fighting- and from the looks of things, holding his own- against someone who was twice his size caused Jiji to reassess his first impression of the boy. '_That kid is somebody that I should probably keep a weather eye on.' _Jiji thought to himself.

Suddenly, the spectators let out a collective groan as the younger prisoners head snapped backwards. Thick Neck had finally managed to strike the kid.

'_Depending__ on whether or not he gets__ his skull caved in of course_.'

Flashing lights danced a merry waltz before the Young Prisoner's eyes. He was disoriented, he couldn't tell where he was, his knees felt like giving way, and he swore that he could feel his brain rattling like a marble on the inside of his skull. Had the Young Prisoner been capable of constructing thoughts at that moment, he would have considered it a small miracle that he was able to stay upright after taking a shot like that to the head.

As his senses returned to him, the Young Prisoner realized two things. The first thing was that he had been stupid to get that close to Thick Neck. The large man was quicker than he had anticipated; the man's counterpunch had caught him completely off guard. He had underestimated the abilities of his opponent, one of the very worst things that one could do in battle.

The Young Prisoner's second realization came when Thick Neck bounded forward and drove his fist into the younger man's gut. As the Young Prisoner doubled over in pain he realized that he was now at a serious disadvantage.

Up until this point the Young Prisoner had been in control of the fight against his larger and stronger opponent by employing one of his few physical advantages over Thick Neck; his speed and agility. The aisle area in between the rows of bunks provided just enough room for the Young Prisoner to move with some degree of freedom. His strategy had been to quickly jump in, strike his opponent, and then retreat before the fat man could catch him with an attack of his own.

But he had made the mistake of staying too long within the reach of Thick Neck and had been caught by the bastard's counterattack.

The Young Prisoner could taste the familiar coppery taste of bloody in his throat. Thick Neck continued to rain blows upon his back and head. The Young Prisoner curled himself into a fetal position, arms protecting his head as best he could as the assault continued.

Thick Neck was merciless; he put all of his ample weight in every single kick that he directed towards the pitiful ball before him. "Not such a tough guy now, are you? Little bitch! This is what you get for disrespecting me!" Thick Neck punctuated his sneers with ever heavier blows to the Young Prisoner's back. "I'll break you in two you little shit!"

The Young Prisoner could feel his strength ebbing away with each blow that he felt. Every strike took more and more of his strength and resolve and he had to force himself not to pass out from the pain. Thick Neck was obviously enraged enough to kill him. He could not die curled up on the ground like a lost babe crying for its mother. He could not die like this. He _would not allow_ himself to die like this, not after all that he had endured.

As Thick Neck's latest kick connected with his side, the Young Prisoner rolled with the blow. Using the momentum generated from the strike to place to aid in his roll, the Young Prisoner scrambled on his hands and knees towards one of the bunks.

Thick Neck barely suppressed the hearty chuckle that was building in his gut as he took in the sight. The little punk was so afraid he was about to shit himself. "What's the matter boy? You running away from me already? What happened to all of that tough talk that you were spouting off before, eh?" At the sight of the Young Prisoner clutching on to the wooden bed frame of the nearest bunk bed, Thick Neck gave up all pretenses of seriousness and indulged in a jovial belly laugh. This really was too rich!

As he clutched the bed frame, the Young Prisoner watched as the fat bastard strolled leisurely towards him, ready to finish off what he obviously thought was a defeated enemy. The youngster watched as the fat man made his way towards him. Step…step…step; as Thick Neck made his way ever closer, the Young Prisoner kept his eyes averted downwards towards the floor.

On the outside, the Young Prisoner's body language screamed submission. Thick Neck grinned as he stretched his hand towards the younger man's neck. Things certainly had worked out well for him. He was able to establish his dominance over this barrack right off the bat! After he made an example out of this little annoyance, the weaker inmates would all get the idea.

Grabbing the Young Prisoner's collar, Thick Neck took a second to look upon the kid's face. He licked his lips. '_Who says that I've got to get rid of him right away_,' he thought. While the scar provided a rather large blemish, the boy was still quite handsome. '_No sense in getting rid of him without having a little f_-'

"Ghaagh!" Thick Neck was jolted out of his musings by the quick kick that his victim had managed to connect with his knee. The fat man clutched at his wounded limb as he felt a hot lance of pain shoot up his left leg. The crowd of prisoners, for their part, gave a cheer at the ingenuity of the smaller combatant and many shouted words of encouragement to the Young Prisoner.

With the help of the bed's frame, the Young Prisoner quickly propelled himself to his feet. His senses now fully returned to him, he quickly took up a defensive stance and tried to appraise his current situation. While satisfied that his gambit had paid off, he still knew that he was in trouble. He had hoped to break Thick Neck's knee with his last attack, but from his prone position he wasn't able to put enough force behind the blow to pull that off. And while he did notice that his enemy now moved with a significant limp, he was still able to remain upright.

He spat on the ground between himself and the fat man; it landed on the floor red. The Young Prisoner quickly sprang on the offensive, weaving left to right as he moved forwards. He directed a snap kick towards Thick Neck's injured leg, hoping to do even more damage to the already fragile limb. With a grunt of pain Thick Neck forced his body to twist backwards and away from the incoming blow. The Young Prisoner connected, but was only able to land a glancing blow.

Using his superior mobility to his advantage, the Young Prisoner darted around Thick Neck's left side, taking care to keep himself just out of arms reach of the larger man. Thick Neck stumbled. The fat man would have had a hard time keeping up with the young man's speed even when he was uninjured; now he was struggling just to stay upright on his wounded knee.

Seeing an opportunity, the Young Prisoner made a feint as if he were about to once again go for Thick Neck's injured leg. Seeing the Young Prisoner's movement, Thick Neck turned his body to protect his injured left leg from the expected attack. Anticipating his opponents reaction, the Young Prisoner-rather than attacking low and to the left as expected- instead attacked high, driving his elbow into the unprotected face of Thick Neck.

The other mans hands flew to his face, muffling the pitiful howl of pain that leaked through his swollen lips and broken teeth. Quick as a leaping hog-monkey the Young Prisoner dropped to the floor and sent Thick Neck to the floor with a sweep kick. Thick Neck had time for a single utterance of surprise before he was sent tumbling onto his back, his head impacting with the stone floor with an audible '_thwap_.'

Charged with adrenaline, the Young Prisoner pounced upon his senseless foe; he was going to make sure that there was no mistake about who won this fight. The Young Prisoner clamped his legs securely around Thick Neck's torso, pinning the fat man's arms to the ground and brought his right fist behind his head before bringing it down in a vicious strike. '_Thwap_!'

Amazing how satisfying that sound was- the sound of a solid weight impacting with a slab of raw meat. Grabbing a firm hold of Thick Neck's shirt collar with his left hand, the Young Prisoner continued to punish the insolent worm that had started this whole thing. With every new strike, more blood flew. As more blood flew, the Young Prisoner felt the urge to spill even more of the other man's essence. He saw red.

'_You can't do this to me_!' he thought. '_You've taken too much from me already! I'm not going to let these things happen to me anymore! I'm not go__ing to allow you to destroy me; I won't let anyone destroy me!_'

The face that he was destroying no longer belonged to Thick Neck. The face that he was doing his very best to maim did not have the dull brown eyes that were so common amongst the people of the Earth Kingdom; the eyes he saw were as golden as his very own and shown with a hateful aura. The face that he was disfiguring did not have the rounded, blunt features of an Earth Kingdom convict; these features were sharp and angular. The nose wasn't wide and blunt, it was thin and aquiline.

"P-Pweas… s-stop…"

It was Thick Neck's voice, so soft as to almost be inaudible. That pitiful voice was all that it took to break the Young Prisoner out of his madness. His hand was up, poised to continue striking but he did not follow through. Instead, he simply put his hand down and stood up. The Young Prisoner felt his rage draining from him, only to be replaced by something else, some other emotion that he could not quite place a name to.

_'…Euphoria?'_ He did not want to acknowledge it, but deep down in his heart he knew. He had been through so much, hurt so badly and now he had finally gotten the chance to hurt someone else. He could deny it until the day he died, but the truth was it had felt _good_ to hurt somebody else for a change.

The Young Prisoner spared a moment to check the status of his own body. His tongue worked around the inside of his mouth. 'Good. No missing or loose teeth.' Besides a split lip and a sizable bruise on his cheek from where Thick Neck had landed his haymaker, his face was undamaged. His back and sides however, were a different story. All of that time that he had spent on the ground under Thick Neck would definitely be taking their toll on him tomorrow.

The Young Prisoner glanced at the prone form of the loser of the battle. Suddenly, his own injuries didn't seem as bad as they were before.

Jiji was glad that he had decided to watch the whole fight instead of heading back to his bunk when it looked like the kid was going to be crushed by the fat prisoner. The whole affair had been very amusing, but the altercation could provide greater dividends besides temporary entertainment. That was the reason why Jiji was slowly making his way towards the kid, who had made his way back to his bunk and was nursing his right hand.

'_The way he was hitting that __fatass__, I wouldn't be surprised if he's broken a knuckle or two._'

Jiji could already see the gravestone eyes of the kid watching his approach from across the room. He was already looking out for more enemies; that was a good sign. He was beginning to like the lad already.

As he moved himself ever closer, he could feel the kid's tension rising with every step he took. To the boy's credit though, he was able to hide the outward signs of anxiousness fairly well. Two marks for the kid already. Setting himself right up next to the edge of the kid's bunk, turning his body so that his eyes were focused solely upon the still prone form of Thick Neck, Jiji said, "That was very well done kid."

"It was nothing." The Young Prisoner did not have the feeling that the older man standing next to him would attack him, but he wasn't about to let down his guard.

"So let me guess, this is the first time you've been in prison isn't it." It wasn't a question; it was a statement of fact. The Young Prisoner shot a suspicious glance down at the man standing at the edge of his bunk. A middle aged man. Tall, well built, scars on the face, and a left eye that was the creamy complexion of a dead organ. In short, a veteran prisoner and not someone he should bother with trying to lie to.

"And you can tell that because…"

"A couple of ways actually," the mysterious convict answered. "But the most important way was the fact that you left him alive. An experienced prisoner would've taken the chance to kill the sonnofabitch. You let him go."

What did that matter? The Young Prisoner might have enjoyed beating up Thick Neck, but there was no reason to take it as far as murdering the other man. "He submitted," the Young Prisoner replied. "There was no reason to take it any further."

The older man just sighed and shook his head. "Spoken like a true fish alright." The two stood in silence for a moment before the Young Prisoner got fed up with the peace.

"What is it that you want," the Young Prisoner asked. "I doubt that you came over here just to make polite conversation."

Jiji scratched the developing stubble on his chin. He might as well get to the point; it wouldn't do to have the youngster getting angry at him before he had a chance to say anything.

"I'm here to extend an invitation to you."

"An invitation to what exactly?" The kid made no effort to hide the naked suspicion in his voice.

"You're a tough little bastard who probably thinks that he can take care of himself." Jiji turned and looked at the Young Prisoner dead in the eyes. "Well let me make one thing clear to you; in here, you can't take care of yourself. If you want to survive for more than a week, you need to make friends."

The Young Prisoner shot his older counterpart a quizzical look. "So you're offering to be my… friend?"

"You can't be alone in here. Things are soft right now because these are the barracks for the new arrivals. It's a whole different world once you get put into the general population."

So there it was, all laid out before him. The Young Prisoner mentally weighed the pros and cons of the offer he had been given while the older man waited patiently off to the side.

"Thank you for the offer, but I don't feel like being affiliated with anybody."

Jiji sighed. He half expected this answer. Still he couldn't fault the kid for not wanting to be beholden to anyone else; he'd felt the same way the first time he had been locked up. He had learned the error of his ways eventually, either this kid would do the same, or he would die. Simple as that. Regardless, Jiji was in no mood to try and force the issue.

"Alright. When you change your mind and you _will_ change your mind, come and find me. My name is Jiji; ask around for me in the eastern block."

The Young Prisoner simply nodded. Shaking his head one final time, the older conflict prepared to make his way back to his own bunk before he remembered something important. "By the way, you got a name?"

"...They call me Lee."


	2. Chapter 2

_Here is chapter two. Big thanks to everybody who reviewed the first chapter, it is extremely gratifying to have people saying that they actually like what I'm doing. Let me clarify a few things that I heard in a few of the reviews. First off; yes the Gaang will be featured in this story, but this fic is mostly going to be Zuko centric. Secondly; I'll try to update this as often as I can. I hate it when I get really into a story and it takes several months of waiting before a new chapter comes out. Finally; I changed the time frame of the series. I never thought that it was plausible that Aang could travel all over the world and master all 4 bending styles within a few months. In my story, Sozin's Comet still has a few years before it makes its return. Anyway, on with the story!_

Chapter 2

"The thing about being in prison is, to keep yourself from going crazy you gotta get into a routine. I mean, it's not all that difficult once you take some time to think about it. Everything on the inside is regimented anyway; an hour before dawn, the prisoners are roused from their beauty sleep and have to fall in for roll call and anybody who's found missing gets the whole barracks on punishment detail."

"If the roll call goes without incident, one of two things happens; either you get sent back to your barracks or you get to be one of the unfortunate pricks who get picked by the commandant for a work detail. Everybody gets called on work detail eventually, but if a guard or someone with some pull in the prison doesn't like you, you can expect your barracks to be called up for more than your fare share. Nothing you can do about that, you're just shit outta luck."

"Now, if you're lucky enough to not be picked out to go on a work detail, you're gonna be stuck in the barracks until around midday. That's when we get our first meal of the day. Don't eat it all, save whatever you can for later. Also, get to the line fast; mostly all we get to eat is this shitty stew. Get there early so that your bowl can get some meat and vegetables, something hearty, and not be one of those poor pricks who get stuck with nothing but broth. You'll starve to death that way."

Jade Passage prisoner number 1089, Lee of the Wulong Hills, newly arrived prisoner and convicted ostrich-horse rustler feigned sleep while he eavesdropped on the lecture that was taking place beneath him. Having spent his formative years amongst the intrigues of the Fire Nation royal court and the past few months as a lone fugitive the young man- who refused to even think of himself as anyone except Lee of the Wulong Hills- was quite adept in the arts of stealth and subterfuge.

Beneath Lee an elderly prisoner named Chow was busy explaining the realities of Jade Passage to an attentive, if anxious, group of new arrivals. Having spent the better part of three decades inside the walls of Jade Passage, old man Chow took it as his personal responsibility to pass on his vast amounts of knowledge and experience to the new fish.

"After the meal the guards give us time for recreation out in the courtyard. This is the time where you can get your exercise in, but remember…" at this point the old man paused in his discourse and held up one of his index fingers. "…the yard is not a free area. In fact, the space is divided between the different gangs which exist within the prison. Going into the wrong area without permission will most likely result in certain death. They won't bother with old farts like me but young guys like you all will be seen as possible threats and will be taken down. Hard."

_That_ was definitely some useful information to have. Lee, from his conversation with Jiji, had known that there were groups among the inmates, but he hadn't been sure of just how much power that they were able to wield over the general population. That they had the power over life and death was useful information indeed.

Lee had recognized that there was a definite hierarchy amongst the prison population, but he did not plan on involving himself in any of that nonsense. He had been sentenced to four years of hard labor in Jade Passage and he was not planning on extending his stay there by causing trouble. Besides, word had gotten around about how he had handled Thick Neck while he was in holding. Lee was finding out that having people knowing that you could handle yourself in a fight went a long way towards getting potential predators to leave you alone.

Lee attempted to sink himself down into the thin, straw stuffed mattress that he was lying on but soon gave up his vain attempts to find any degree of comfort. Instead he sat up and allowed himself to soak in the information that was being relayed two feet below him. Mostly, old man Chow was just spouting out things that Lee had already figured out for himself.

He had been at Jade Passage for several weeks and felt that he had adapted fairly well to his new surroundings. Upon his arrival in general population, the youngster had quickly fallen into a routine. He would wake up early, do a few morning exercises in the narrow aisles between the prisoner's bunks, go to inspection, avoid everyone else until midday, eat the midday meal. After coming in from the yard he would report to his job in the prison laundry where he would spend the remainder of the day scrubbing blood-and various other bodily fluids- out of sheets and clothes. Aside from the monotony, things weren't so bad.

Putting his hand under his pillow, Lee took out his single treasured personal possession, the White Lotus Pai Sho tile. _'__I'm doing what you wanted. I'm surviving. You don't have to worry about me anymore.__' _Squeezing the tile in his right hand and closing his eyes, the young man began his silent recitation of Agni's sutra for the dead.

* * *

If Lee could say that he enjoyed anything about his new life as guest of the state, he would have to say that the one place where he derived any satisfaction was from his job in the laundry room. From what he had heard from other prisoners, he had lucked out by being assigned to such a cushy job. It was very unusual for a young, healthy man who was not affiliated to one of the prison gangs to not to be assigned to anything except hard labor. 

For his part, Lee did not really care what act of bureaucratic oversight had caused him to be placed where he was. He was there and he would be thankful that he didn't have to go out and perform back-breaking labor on a daily basis. He would have thanked the spirits for his good fortune, but he had been screwed by them a few too many times in the past; he would be withholding any praise to the unseen and unheard for the time being.

While working in the laundry, Lee was able to avoid contact with other prisoners for most of the day. He could lose himself in the seemingly endless cycle of washing and sorting. Here he could find the time to withdraw into himself and be alone with his own thoughts, away from the noise and commotion in the barracks.

He also liked the fact that it was one of the places where he could relax his guard and not be on edge all of the time. Most of the other prisoners who worked in the place were old and infirm; those that weren't old men seemed to be suffering from some disability or other that prevented them from going out to work on the more arduous jobs outside the prison. Most of them did not look like they could pose a serious threat.

Two things served to spoil the otherwise ideal situation for Lee. The first of which was that Thick Neck also happened to be working in the laundry. When Lee had reported for his first day of work he had been surprised to see the fat man there as well. That surprise lasted all of ten seconds before he noticed how the other man was walking with a very noticeable limp; apparently he had done more damage to that limb than he had previously thought.

Thick Neck had not made any outward signs of hostility towards Lee. In fact, the larger man seemed to go out of his way to pretend that the latter did not even exist. He never tried to speak, tried to stay across the room from the younger man, and he even avoided making eye contact with the scar-faced prisoner. Lee was confident that he had taught the other man a lesson. Still and all, having an enemy in such close proximity got under his skin.

As for the second problem- "Hey milky, the fuck're you doin' starin' out inta space like that for? Get back to foldin' those sheets!" Lee cursed under his breath as he saw Sergeant Du, the laundry room overseer making his way towards him.

The good sergeant was well known amongst the prison population as a bully and was notorious for writing prisoners up for the most minor of infractions. Any prisoner who got written up could look forward to a stint in solitary and a beating from the guards. Much to Lee's "delight" Sergeant Du had decided to make him his official punching bag.

As the sergeant got closer Lee was forced to look upwards in order to keep eye contact with the other man. Du was as tall as Thick Neck, but lacked the convict's corpulence. His body was all muscle and bad attitude.

"You say somethin' boy? Come on, speak up! If you said somethin' then I wanna hear it!" Du growled into the younger man's face. "What's the matter? That Fire Nation blood in your veins make you too chickenshit to talk to somebody like a man? Come on! Answer me ya fuckin' mixbreed!"

Just for good measure, Sergeant Du began prodding the scar-faced prisoner in the face with his truncheon. He could see the tightening of young man's facial muscles, the way his hands clenched and unclenched in impotent fury. Oh how the little mutt bastard must be wanting to do something.

Lee glared back defiantly but said nothing. He was afraid that if he opened his mouth he would use his breath of fire to melt the bastard's face off. Tempting as that thought was, the torture and inevitable execution that would result for such an act kept him from acting on his thoughts.

Seeing that his victim was not going to give him a reason to work him over, a mildly disappointed Du walked on to harass somebody else, but not before giving Lee a sharp jab to the kidney's with his truncheon, as was his habit.

Lee stared at the sergeant's back as he walked away. If he had been able to firebend using only his mind, Du would have been a smoking pile of ash. Lee instead contented himself with the fact that the worst of it was over; in the month or so that he had been working in the laundry room he had learned that it was unusual for Du to abuse somebody more than once a day.

Putting all else out of his mind, Lee focused on the pile of bedclothes and the wash basin that made up his work station.

'_Oh great.__Vomit.'_

* * *

Sergeant Du was not a person who indulged in false pretenses. No, he was a simple man who saw the world in simple terms. Simple problems and simple solutions. There was no use in lying to yourself or anyone else; absolutely no reason not to be who you really are on the inside. Simple problems and simple solutions. 

For instance, if someone were to accuse Sergeant Du of being a bigot, he would not disagree. Truth be told, he would puff out his chest and proclaim it for the entire world to hear; he unabashedly hated the Fire Nation and its people. He hated the Sons of Fire from the very core of his being.

The other guards did not understand him. How could they? Without exception, they were all native to the Songhay Dominion; they had lived their lives here in the Far East, over a thousand miles from the main lines of battle against the hated invaders. They weren't from where he was from.

They had never seen a village raised to the ground by enemy troops. They had never stood, helpless, as victorious Fire Nation foot soldiers pillaged and stole everything that they could get their miserable hands on. They had never suffered the indignity of having their whole culture trampled under the arrogant feet of the 'March of Civilization.' They had never stood mute as they watched their fathers being killed and their mothers being raped.

The others just did not understand the world at all. But Du understood perfectly; the Fire Nation and all of its cursed brood deserved to go the way of the Air Nomads. Extermination; an eye for an eye. Poetic justice.

So what if he had 'misplaced' the key to the door of the laundry room while he had been escorting the prisoners to their late day meal. And if he had allowed the guards under his supervision to have a few more minutes for break during the shift change, what of it? It was one of his privileges as sergeant.

As Sergeant Du idly joked with his fellow guards, he couldn't help but display a warm smile on his usually dour face, content with the thought that he was helping to rid the world of a filthy Fire Nation half-breed.

* * *

Lee, to put it simply was pissed. He was currently attempting the impossible task of getting dried blood out of some bed sheets. '_Seriously, do they honestly feel that they have a legitimate reason for making us do things like this,'_ he thought angrily. 

The bastards would pull things like this all the time. They would give the prisoners things to wash, come back later and complain about the finished products not being clean enough or having stains, and then the prisoners would get chewed out by a guard and they'd have one of their privileges revoked. Then when the next batch of dirty laundry came, the whole cycle would start over again.

Lee looked at his wrinkled hands in displeasure. Ever since he was a child, he had always disliked the fe- "What the…" was all that the scar-faced prisoner managed to get out before the world around him suddenly became a dingy grey color. He felt a set of powerful arms wrap themselves around his body and lift him bodily from the place where he had been sitting in front of the washtub.

Lee twisted his body left and right, lashing out wildly with his legs, trying desperately to connect with something or someone.

"Hold him still!" A voice he didn't recognize.

"I need some help; he's stronger than he looks!" Another voice he didn't recognize. What was going on?

"Don't worry, I'll calm him down." Shit. That was a voice that he recognized. The next thing he knew, he felt Thick Neck's fist slamming right into his gut. All of the air was forced out of his body. That blow had been so heavy; he couldn't breathe, he couldn't think. Thick Neck sent a second punch into Lee's unprotected stomach. The young prisoner felt like his guts were going to explode out from his mouth. The next few strikes came to his face and once again Lee felt the familiar sensation of his brain rattling around inside of his skull.

Lee did not feel himself falling, but he felt it when he hit the ground. The impact jarred his already scrambled senses. His unseen attackers were upon him in a flash. Invisible hands and feet assailed the defenseless young man who was wrapped up in the bed sheet. Something smashed into his nose, and he felt blood coming down his face. Something else slammed into his ribs, and he crumbled like rice paper.

He had to get out. He had to get away. '_I'm going to die like this? No! I can't die like this!_' Lee tried to rise, but he was quickly knocked back onto the cold stone of the floor. His attackers weren't going to let him run away that easily; the best that he could manage was to roll his body. It didn't matter what direction he went in, just as long as he could get _away_, even if only for a few seconds.

"Watch it, he's trying to run," a sadistic voice sneered.

"Don't worry, he won't be getting far," Thick Neck replied. The glee that was in the fat man's voice was plain.

The young prisoner was only able to struggle the few feet towards the wall. Curling himself up into a ball was all that he could do to protect himself from the pummeling that the attackers were still bringing down upon him. Lee's throat was raw and he heard someone screaming. It took him a second to realize that he was the one who was screaming.

This didn't make any sense, "Guard! Guard!" he screamed over and over again. Where were the guards? They should have been here by now; they should have come in to stop this already. Why was no one coming to stop them? Why was no one coming to help him?

Suddenly, Thick Neck's voice cut through the ocean of pain that enveloped the scarred young man wrapped in the bed sheet. "Get him on his belly!"

Lee felt a hand trying to yank down his trousers. 'No! _No, no, no, no, no, no!_' Forgetting about protecting his head, both of Lee's hands shot to his waistline; he had to keep his pants on no matter what. He knew what they were going to try to do to him. From his prone position he attempted to breathe deep, to get the right amount of air to generate fire, consequences be damned. He couldn't allow _that_ to happen to him, not while he was still breathing.

"We don't have time for that shit; the guards could be back any second." One of the voices that Lee did not recognize spoke out.

"Yeah. This isn't the time or place for your little deviant hobbies. Quit fucking around and finish the kid off so we can get outta here!" The other voice that Lee did not recognize added. His voice betrayed the slightest hint of impatience.

"No! He's gotta pay for what he did to me! This is my revenge and he's not done until I say he's done!" Thick Neck sounded livid.

"Suit yourself," the voice went from a hint of impatience to full blown annoyance. "We're getting outta here." Lee could hear the sound of retreating footsteps as several pairs of feet beat a hasty withdrawal from the laundry room.

A sharp kick to his gut knocked all of the wind out of the young prisoner's body. A boot to the head nearly knocked him senseless. He could feel his body shutting down, his mind drifting ever further into unconsciousness. His grip on his trousers was weakening. He felt someone slide them all the way down. The world was getting progressively darker as he felt himself sinking, sinking, sinking, sink…..

* * *

Lee found himself being ripped from unconsciousness by something wet and bitterly cold. He immediately rolled onto his side and released the contents of his stomach onto the floor just centimeters below him. Some of the filth found its way onto his shirt. He saw one of his molars floating in the mixed puddle of blood and stomach contents. At this point, he was long past the point of caring about any of that. 

"So, how're you feelin?" Right above him, holding a now empty pail, was a very satisfied looking Sergeant Du. Surrounding him were several other guards, all of whom had been inexplicably absent for the duration of his attack. Lee struggled to sit up. Noticing that his pants were still down, he quickly pulled them back up.

Du and a few of the other guards chuckled. "You'd better be movin' along back to your barracks boy. Dally any longer an' you'll be late for the nighttime count."

Lee didn't even have enough energy to manage a glare at the arrogant guards. He somehow managed the strength to pull himself to his feet. Without looking at or speaking to anyone, he limped out of the laundry room.

* * *

"Look sharp Jiji, somebody's coming this way." 

The eastern section of the yard, known as the block, was the place Jiji and his comrades held court. One did not intrude into someone else's territory with no permit or parley. That was just asking for trouble. Pulling himself away from his game of Lion's Dice to observe the intruder, and was mildly surprised to find the young man he had met in holding coming towards him. Jiji would never have recognized him as the same person had it not been for the large scar on the boy's face; aside from that angry red mark, the kid's whole face looked like one giant bruise.

"It's alright Badou, I'll go and talk to him." Moving to meet the kid halfway, Jiji stopped in front of the younger man.

"Long time no see," the veteran prisoner began. "What do you want?"

"…I want in."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The eastern wing of the prison at Jade Passage was by far the oldest in the entire installation. Crafted by skilled Earthbender engineers nearly two centuries ago, it was the home to the prison's very first inmates. Through nearly two centuries, the walls of the eastern wing stood witness to unspeakable acts of cruelty; murder, torture, sodomy, nearly every perversion and vice known to man had gone on within its solid walls. The eastern wing had an evil reputation amongst prison official and prisoner alike as a gathering point for the worst of the worst.

There was one thing, however, that the eastern wing could boast about; it had cells, proper cells, not barracks. Most were jammed well past capacity with four or five men inhabiting a space that should have held only three at the most. It was in one of these cells where a scarred and badly bruised young man sat surrounded by several heavily tattooed men. Across from him sat a man whom Jiji had only referred to 'the old man of the mountains.'

The so-called 'old man of the mountains' considered the battered young man in front of him. A face that looked like it had been trampled by a herd of panicked hyena-boars stared right back at him. '_He's looking me in the eye. That's a good sign.'_Deciding that the mood in room was oppressive enough already, the old man made the decision to lighten the mood by breaking into a wide grin revealing a mouthful of missing teeth.

"So, what can I do for you young fella," the old man asked with as much good cheer as he could put into his garbled voice. The 'young fella' in question just stared blankly back at the old man.

To be totally honest, Lee was not sure exactly what to make of the strange old man who was currently grinning at him like exuberant toddler. The missing teeth only added to the image. When Jiji had agreed to take him to meet the leader of his gang- or as the veteran prisoner called it, 'brotherhood'- Lee had expected many things. He had expected to meet a vicious and ruthless killer; a devil in human flesh who would just as soon kill him as look at him. Frankly, Lee was not at all sure whether he was relieved or disappointed that instead of the ultra sadist that he had been expecting, he had instead gotten someone's doting grandfather. His surprise was so great that he had a difficult time thinking of a response to the old man's question.

"Um…" Lee began dumbly. "You are…"

"Oh!" The old man exclaimed, cutting of Lee's statement. "Where are my manners? Introductions! Introductions are in order!"

Clasping his left fist into his right palm, the older man gave a seated bow to the younger man. "I am the illustrious Romantic Warrior, Sao Feng. In my prime I was known as the Bandit King of the Hills and the Ogre of Mt. Sei. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, young sir."

Copying the old man's fist-in-palm gesture, Lee returned the bow. "My name is Lee. I'm from the Wulong Hills." The old man stroked his long, snow white beard and looked at Lee as if he were waiting for the younger convict to say more. After a rather drawn out and awkward pause, Sao Feng finally got the hint that the younger man's introduction was over. After shaking his head and muttering something about 'youngsters these days' and 'no sense of the dramatic' Feng decided that enough pleasantries had been exchanged. It was now time to get down to business.

The change in the old man's continence and the atmosphere in the cell itself were so subtle that Lee almost missed it. Almost. The young prisoner saw the old man's eyes take on a dangerous glint. The eyes were the gateway to a person's deepest emotions; Sao Feng's eyes burned with an inner fire that threatened to consume the young man who sat across from him at any given moment. All at once, Lee recognized that he had potentially put himself in very real danger.

"It is a shame that no one ever comes to see an old man like me unless they've come on some business of some kind. So, Lee of the Wulong Hills, what business do you have with Sao Feng?" Though Feng's tone remained flippant, Lee knew that his very life could hang on how he chose to answer the old man. Swallowing his apprehension, the young man willed his voice to remain calm and his hands to remain steady. He could not afford to show them any kind of weakness.

"I sought you out because I was once told by one of your subordinates," Lee nodded at Jiji, "told me of the importance of having friends here in Jade Passage."

"Mmmh," the old man muttered while nodding his head; a gesture that Lee took to signify understanding. "So you desire _protection_. That it?"

"I can _protect_ myself," the young prisoner snapped back, genuinely insulted by the old man's implication. Whatever else Lee may have been, he was a man who fought his own battles. Sao Feng quirked a snowy eyebrow at the younger convict, a look dangerously close to respect crossing across the old man's wrinkled face.

"Well, well," the old man replied. "You say that you don't want our humble brotherhood's protection, and I can respect that." Sao Feng quickly hardened his expression as he spoke his next words. "However, you still haven't answered the original question; what business do you have with Sao Feng?"

Lee struggled to keep both his face and his voice as neutral as possible. He had to maintain the exterior appearance of calm even if it felt like his heart was about to explode inside of his ribcage. "Like I said before," Lee deadpanned, "I'm just trying to make some friends."

Lee spent several nervous seconds seeing the different emotions play across Sao Feng's face. At first the old man had looked thrown by his statement. Puzzlement was then quickly replaced by a dark, hooded look and Lee was introduced to the sensation of his insides fluttering and his balls trying to crawl up into his stomach. Just as Lee was considering how he could possibly make his escape from the crowded cell, Feng's face suddenly broke out into the wide grin that the old man had worn at the start of their conversation.

"Indeed!" The 'Romantic Warrior' laughed. "Making friends is very important."

"My uncle always said I needed more," Lee replied. Though he remained outwardly composed, on the inside, the young convict was breathing a sigh of relief. He felt that he had gotten over his first hurdle.

Sao Feng chuckled before proceeding. "All right, I understand now. You don't wish to become one of our clients; you wish to become our brother. However," Sao Feng's face recovered its dark expression, "wise men do not invite strangers into their family."

Lee did not even try to hide his grimace. "You think that I'm untrustworthy."

"I _think_ that I don't know anything about you," the old man replied. "And quite frankly, what I do know about you does not exactly inspire confidence," Sao Feng stated while derisively shaking a gnarled hand towards Lee. Lee was taken aback by this statement and made the mistake of letting his emotions show on his face. How could the old geezer sit there and make judgments of him? They had just met for Agni's sake!

Lee could feel his volatile temper rising. The young man knew he should try to keep his anger in check, but at the moment he did not care. Narrowing his swollen eyes as much as he was able, Lee glared at the old man across from him. Sao Feng simply chuckled. "Anger? Well, I suppose that I would be a little bit steamed as well. But trust me, I don't say things just to say them, understand? I have reasons for everything I say."

"And those would be…"

"This is your first time in prison isn't it." Sao Feng was not asking a question, he was making a statement of fact. "Look at you," the old man barked, jabbing a bony finger in the younger man's face. "No tattoos; someone who's been through the system would have at least one located someplace visible."

"You ask me why I don't think much of you," the old man stated, rising to his feet so that he could glare down at the kid who was still seated on the floor. "It's because nothing about you feels criminal! The way you walk, the way your voice sounds, just the whole aura that you give off; I've spent my entire life around cutthroats, thieves, rapists, and scoundrels of the highest order. I can look at you and tell that you're not one of them; one of _us_."

"What difference does any of that make," Lee retorted angrily, all thoughts of controlling his temper completely forgotten. "I'm stuck here in a prison, how the hell am I not a criminal?" Lee was growing increasingly agitated, not to mention confused, by the old man's words. Neither Thick Neck nor any of his other attackers had approached him in the last few days, but that was sure not to last. He knew that if he was not accepted into the old man's fold, it would only be a matter of time before he ended up dead.

Sao Feng looked at the youngster as if he was the dumbest man he had ever met. "You don't understand?"

"Enlighten me!" Lee growled through clenched teeth.

"Alright, I'll give you an example. Jiji tells me that you beat a man severely during the time you were in holding. Is that correct?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Lee was not at all clear where this line of questioning was going. He was reminded of his uncle and how the old man seemed to be incapable of answering a question without the use of half a dozen anecdotes about tea leaves or some other nonsense. Why did all old men have to answer a question with another question? Couldn't they ever just give a straight answer?

"You humiliated a man twice your size in front of a hundred witnesses. Then, you let him live. Why?"

"Because he was beaten; he asked for mercy. I didn't have any reason to take it that far." Now Lee was really confused.

Sao Feng shook his head in obvious amusement; Lee heard the blatant chuckles from the men who lined the walls of the cramped cell. The kid's naiveté was just too funny! Lee felt his cheeks heating; he was suddenly thankful for the thick mask of bruises and scars that he wore on his face.

"Things like that are the reason why I have a problem with letting you in. 'No reason to take it that far,' please! Am I right is assuming that the person you brutalized that first time was the one that made your face like that?"

Silence. The old man of the mountain donned a humorless smirk as he calmly stroked his beard. "I'll take that as a yes. The point I'm trying to make is that your way of thinking doesn't belong in a prison. Showing mercy is something an honorable man would do." Sao Feng paused in his discourse and spat upon the cell's floor. "_That's_ what I think of _honorable_ men! We're not men in here, we're animals!"

Lee was beginning to feel uneasy about this whole situation. It truly dawned on him for the first time that he was completely out of his element in Jade Passage. He had survived an Agni Kai with the Fire Lord, battles with the Avatar, naval engagements with Earth Kingdom dreadnaughts, pirates, and his psychotic sister; hell, he had floated back from the disaster at the North Pole on a _raft_. He had survived everything that life had ever thrown at him and had assumed that he would be able to survive prison in the same way.

But now Lee was thrown into doubt. All of his principles, all of the things that he had ever been taught, all the things that he had believed in with such fervor, he now realized that in Jade Passage, those principles were worth nothing. He suddenly felt cold, as if he were back on the frozen wastelands of the North Pole. He wasn't prepared to be in a place like this; he really didn't know how to handle himself. The poisonous inklings of doubt had made their way into his mind. Suddenly, he was unsure of everything.

"You're saying that if I want to live, I've got to become an animal."

Sao Feng nodded his head sharply. "You make that sound like it's a bad thing! A platypus-bear's only thoughts are about survival. We are the same way. In a prison, you're either a predator or you're food for somebody else."

The gravity of the old man's words weighed heavily on Lee's shoulders. The young man sat in silence for a moment, fists balled and eyes screwed shut. When he reopened them, Sao Feng saw a fire alight in the young man's eyes.

"Nobody's going to be eating me!" Feng was momentarily taken aback by the intensity in the young inmate's words, but quickly regained his composure.

"It's one thing to say it; you've got to prove it." An unpleasant smirk decorated the old man's face.

Lee took a deep breath and swallowed his apprehension. "What do I have to do?"

"Simple; you have to kill a man."

'_Kill a man_.' A simple request really. It certainly wasn't anything that Lee hadn't done before, in a former life. He had done it multiple times, in fact. '_Kill a man._' It wasn't even that much of a mystery who his victim was going to be. '_Kill a man_.' It shouldn't be any different than the other times he had taken a life. '_Kill a man._' It shouldn't be any different.

* * *

_(Flashback)_

_"You want me to kill somebody." Lee found that he wasn't all that surprised by Sao __Feng'__s__ request, given the environment he was in and the conversation that he had just shared with the old man. Still, he could feel the now familiar tightening of his insides. Was that nervousness?_

_"Yes. To become our brother__, you have to prove your strength." The old man, with the assistance of one of his underlings, took a seat back down onto the floor. "We already know that you're plenty tough, but we don't need tough guys. We need killers."_

_Lee could feel the atmosphere in the cell growing heavier by the second. It __dawned upon the young inmate that he was literally surrounded by murderers. Ever so softly, his spine stiffened. He could feel his back starting to break out in a nervous sweat. Somehow Lee was able to maintain his air of nonchalance. _

_"Who do you want me to kill," he asked. _

_"I think you've already got somebody in mind," __Feng__ replied with a wink and a positively evil smile on his face. "As for the other conditions, you have twelve days to do the deed and you've got to do it on your own__. You won't have any help from us."_

* * *

Twelve days. That should have been plenty of time to get the job done. As Lee knew from painful experience, how things should have been and how things were only had a passing acquaintance with one another. It had already been nine days since his meeting with Sao Feng. He was no closer to fulfilling his mission.

Theoretically, murder is just a simple issue of finding a victim, and the means and opportunity to do away with said victim. Lee already had his intended victim; Thick Neck. The fat man had taken to taunting him whenever the two crossed paths. Lee could feel down in his bones that the time was coming when Thick Neck would come back and try to finish the job he had started weeks before. Lee knew that he had to eliminate the threat, and soon.

No, it was definitely means and opportunity that were throwing an elephant-rat in his lychee nuts. Lee did not own any weapons; there were thousands of illegal razors, knives and other homemade instruments of death circulating around Jade Passage. Lee could either make or trade for a knife, but stabbing Thick Neck to death presented a problem. It hadn't been all that long since he had received that vicious beating at the hands of Thick Neck and his conspirators. It had been over two weeks, but Lee was still far from recovered. Stabbing someone to death can potentially be a long and drawn out process; unless Lee managed to kill Thick Neck immediately, it was more than likely that _he_ would be the one who was killed. There was the option of cutting the man's throat while he slept; problem was, Thick Neck was housed in a separate barrack.

There was no way that Lee could fight Thick Neck, not in his current condition. Besides, even in top physical condition, it wasn't likely that he could beat the larger man to death with his bare hands before a guard came to stop him. Seeing no good options open to him, Lee decided to forget about the means and focus on when he would have a good opportunity.

Unfortunately, the Spirits seemed to be determined to frustrate him in this area as well. Thick Neck did not sleep in the same barrack as Lee, so the option of killing the man during the silence of night was gone. All prisoners were shackled hand and foot while they received their meals. There was no way that he could catch his target while he was busy eating.

That left only two possible places where Lee could actually do the deed; the yard and the laundry room. The yard was unappealing for two reasons. The first of which was the fact that Thick Neck had joined one of the factions which claimed pieces of the yard as their personal property. While the fat bastard was inside his gang's zone, he was virtually untouchable; whenever he had to move to another part of the yard, he always moved with someone else. There seemed to be no way that he could get at Thick Neck when the man was by himself.

The second reason why attacking Thick Neck on the yard was unsavory was the fact that one of the guards who patrolled the yard happened to be an earthbender. Even if he were somehow blessed by the Spirits and was able to catch Thick Neck by himself and away from his gang's territory, it was still highly unlikely that he'd be capable of subduing the larger inmate before he found himself encased in solid rock.

That was why if Lee was even going to attempt to kill Thick Neck, it would have to be here, in the laundry room. The question was, how?

* * *

Thick Neck was all smiles and giggles. And why not, he had a right to be; life was finally starting to treat him good. Sure, he was stuck in prison, but at least he was no longer at the bottom of the barrel anymore.

Having spent a good portion of his life incarcerated in one dungeon or another, the fat prisoner knew a lot about prisons. He knew that all prisons had a hierarchy and that respect was everything. Losing a fight to a man half his size- no, not a man, a child- was very bad for his reputation. He was lucky that one of the brotherhoods had decided to allow him to join. He had felt very afraid for a very long time, but those times were now over. Now was the time for people to be afraid of him.

Speak of the devil! The scar-faced brat was back at his work station, scrubbing dingy linen. Thick Neck saw the kid looking at him out of the corner of his eye; the fat man smiled a whimsical smile. The memories of how he had the young man curled up on the floor in the sheet, screaming in pain were as sweet to him as the memory of a lost lover's embrace. He could feel himself becoming aroused.

Still, he was still a bit disappointed that he hadn't been able to finish everything that he had wanted to do to the boy. The damn guards had gotten back too soon and he had to pull out before the job was done. Still, a little bit was better than nothing.

Thick Neck noticed that the bruising on the boy's face had started to subside. He thought that he'd finally kill the kid when all of the bruising went away; let him start to recover, feel better, before taking him out of the picture completely. Really, he had been too nice letting the kid live this long already. With a final leer to scar-face, Thick Neck returned to his own washing.

* * *

How was he going to do it? Strangle him with the bed linens? Drown him in one of the washtubs? What was he going to do? Lee could feel his anxiety building and was powerless to calm himself down. He was running out of time, he could feel it. '_If I don't come up with something soon, I'll have to do something desperate and stupid._' History teaches that doing something desperate and stupid often ends in death. Lee was in no hurry to die. The young inmate centered himself; he just had to calm down, concentrate. He was sure to think of something good if he concentrated.

"Well hello there number 1089! How's the ass feel!" '_Fuck_!' Right on schedule, Sergeant Du came to make his daily harassment of the scar-faced prisoner. He didn't have time for Du's nonsense; he had to think of a plan of action.

Lee blocked out Du's ranting and focused on the real problem at hand. His eyes scanned the laundry room, searching for something that could be useful. He just needed some inspiration.

'_Washtubs, bed linens, shelves, stools, transport crates, __st__-__…_' And just like that, there it was leaning against the entrance door. '_Inspiration_.' Leaning next to the entrance door of the laundry room was an iron bar around four feet in length. The bar was used as a support for some of the older wooden transport carts, but right now it simply lay idle in its place by the door.

Lee was jolted out of his reverie by a sharp rap on his knuckles from Du's truncheon. "Hey, you listenin' to me boy?" The scar-faced inmate rubbed his sore knuckles, but kept his eyes towards the insides of his washtub. Calm; he just had to stay calm. '_Let him think that you've been humbled, let everybody think you've been broken.'_

After a few more choice comments, Sergeant Du moved on to harass someone else. Lee watched the man swagger to the other side of the laundry room and back inside his office. It was time to move.

'_Kill a man_…' Lee had never thought much about what it was going to mean to murder a man. He had killed before; the idea of killing Thick Neck did not scare or sicken him in the slightest. Then why did his legs feel like he was walking through mud that reached up to his knees. His palms became slick with sweat. Lee's limbs felt heavier than he ever remembered them being before. This shouldn't be happening to him, should it?

He had reached the door and touched the iron bar. Hot flesh met cold metal; Lee felt his chest tighten. Suddenly it was getting very hard to breathe. Grasping the bar in both hands, the young inmate turned and walked in the direction of Thick Neck, who was situated at his washtub, oblivious to everything around him. Twenty paces from the door to Thick Neck; why did he have to struggle so much to move his legs?

'_Lord Agni, Spirit of the Sun, Source of the Light of Life, __receive__ your child and let him pass over…_'

"Fifteen paces." Lee knew that he was wrong; killing someone was not the same thing as murdering them.

'… _Y__ou are the ex__ecutor of justice, the punisher of the w__icked. Let the evil that men perpetrate on this earth be purged by righteous flames_…'

"Ten paces." Every life that he had taken before was an 'honorable' kill. They were fellow warriors, they were armed, and they had fought on even terms. He had treated the business of life and death as if it were a gentleman's game. They lost and died. He won and lived.

'… _through the fire and the flames we, the sinful, carry on in search of sanctuary. We pray for the spirits of our forbearers and for the lives of our progeny__. May the Spirits heal those we have wronged in the past and __prepare __those who we will harm in the future__…_'

"Three paces." Lee found it vaguely funny that nobody had run up to stop him yet. A large part of him wanted someone to stop him from doing what he was about to do. A killing without honor; damnit! He shouldn't be forced to make decisions like this!

'… _and abandon the wicked to burn forever in a blazing world_.'

"Namu." It was no more than a whisper; barely audible. But it was loud enough for Thick Neck to hear; loud enough for him to turn around and snatch a glimpse of his impending death. Lee brought the iron bar down upon Thick Neck's head with all the strength that his beaten body could muster. The dull thump from the impact of the bar on the fat man's head seemed to reverberate through the whole laundry room. Lee hefted the bar above his head and continued his assault.

Lee's body seemed to be moving all by itself; his mind barely registered that he was ordering his arms to rise and fall. It seemed as if he were watching himself from off to the side. So much more blood was flying than the last time he had fought Thick Neck. It was getting on his hands, and covering his face. He could taste the fat man's blood as droplets flew into his mouth and leaked down from his face onto his lips. It was so much different than the last time; he didn't feel rage, he just felt numb.

"Prisoner number 1089! Put down the bar immediately!"

'_Huh?_' Who the hell was shouting at him? Lee twisted his neck around to see who it was that was shouting for his attention. '_Oh! The guards__…_' he thought dumbly. Lee quickly brought himself back to reality; he immediately dropped the iron bar and placed his hands upon his head.

The prison warders quickly rushed to where Lee was standing and surrounded him, but none seemed very keen to place himself too close to the blood drenched prisoner. Finally, a pallid Sergeant Du approached the young prisoner and quickly shackled the inmate's wrists together. His usual sneer was gone and his wide eyes darted from the scar-faced kid in front of him, to the lifeless bulk on the floor.

Lee glanced down at the corpse at his feet. '_Damn! How long was I hitting him?_' Thick Neck's head had been mashed to pulp; there was a body attached to something that only bared a passing resemblance to a human head. Blood mixed with brain matter and skull fragments pooled around his feet and soaked through the thin material of his shoes. As he was led out of the laundry room by three shocked guards, Lee thought to himself,

'_My toes are going to stick together.'_


	4. Chapter 4

_I'm back with a new chapter! This is the longest one yet and it took me the longest time to complete; I had writer's block for about a week. Anyway, thanks to all the people who have been reviewing this story, I get a lot of encouragement from all of the positive things that everyone has been saying._

Chapter 4

In his old age, Sao Feng was prone to lapses in memory. It was understandable; he was a very old man and in his long career as a bandit, he had taken more than a few blows to the head. It was not even as if Feng forgot the important things; he knew the names of all of the men under his command as well as the guards in the east block. He knew the days when his brotherhood's clients were expected to show up and present their gifts of gratitude to his organization in return for keeping them safe. He knew when he was supposed to present the east block's watch captain with the appropriate bribe in order to keep running his 'businesses' with impunity.

No, Sao Feng remembered all of the important things in his life; it was in the little details where he started to lose things. And he had the feeling that one of those little details was escaping him right now. The old man of the mountain took a long drag from his whisp pipe, blowing out a long stream of smoke and adding to the ethereal purple haze which filled the insides of the cell like morning mists of a swamp. Technically, no prisoner was allowed to smoke, but a prisoner of Sao Feng's age and status could get away with such breaches in prison protocol. After inhaling and exhaling the potent herb once more, the Romantic Warrior vocalized his concern while passing the pipe to the cells only other occupant. "I have the distinct feeling that I have forgotten something."

Taking the pipe from Sao Feng and placing it to his own lips, an equally old man proceeded to take a drag from the whisp pipe. Blowing several smoke rings, the old timer directed his single bleary eye at his companion, "That's a surprise Feng; you've usually got a mind like a platypus-bear trap."

"That I do Ngo," Sao Feng replied, grinning at his long time cell mate. "Still, I have a feeling that there's supposed to be somebody or something here that just isn't." Sao Feng had met Ngo thirty one years ago when the Romantic Warrior had been sent to Jade Passage to serve his life sentence following a lifetime of bizarre misadventures, villainy, and all around scandalous behavior. Ngo fingered his long chin beard and closed his eye.

"Sounds to me like you're startin' to feel your age Feng. You know they say that the memory's the first thing to go." Sao Feng grimaced. "Do you want me to remove your other eye you rusty old bastard," he growled in mock fury. Ngo puffed out his chest and glared at the other old man in the cell, "Try it and I'll stick another knife in your belly!"

The two geriatrics continued their stare down before Ngo took an extra deep hit from the pipe, hacked like he was about to cough up one of his lungs, and quickly pushed the poisonous instrument back into Sao Feng's wrinkled hands. Satisfied that the spirits had justly chastised his disagreeable cellmate, Feng took another hit from the pipe and continued with the original line of conversation.

"Like I said, I've got the feeling that I'm forgetting something; spirits take me if I remember what it is though." Passing the pipe back to Ngo, Sao Feng scratched his bald scalp as he tried to remember; it was right at the back of his head. Frustrated at his inability to remember, Feng struggled to his feet, leaving Ngo happily puffing away on the pipe, and hobbled out of the cell into the corridor. Spotting a familiar 

face, the old man of the mountain called out, "Gen! Is there anything important goin' on today that I should know about?"

"Don't you remember Master Feng," Gen replied. "Lee gets let out of the hole today."

* * *

'_25… 26…27…28'_

One hundred sit-ups.

'_32…33…34…35'_

One hundred squats.

'_39…40…41…42'_

Fifty push-ups; fingertip push-ups. Do all exercises three times a day.

'_48…49…50!'_ Lee released the breath that he had been holding in as he slowly lowered himself down onto the cold stone floor of the dungeon cell. The feeling utter exhaustion was a welcome relief. His entire body was slick with sweat and covered with caked on dirt from the filthy room. His chest burned and the joints in his fingers were on fire. Not for the first time, Lee wondered if he wasn't something of a masochist for doing these things to himself.

* * *

The solitary confinement cell, or the 'hole', was a pretty depressing place to work. The hole was literally that; a hole. Well, it would be more accurate to call it a cave. When Jade Passage was being constructed, a subterranean cavern was converted into a place to hold the most dangerous and persistently violent inmates in the prison.

It was dark. It was dirty. It was damp. Chang felt miserable, and he was a guard; spirits only knew what he would do if he had to live in one of the cells. In his eight years working in the hole, he had seen more than a few prisoners go mad. In those eight years he had opened up cells to find gruesome sights; men who were too weak or too broken to take the pressures of the hole and who freed themselves from their prison in the only way they could. Spirits did he hate working down here in the hole.

Still, he had a job to do and he would have to get to it sooner or later. Heaving himself up from his desk, Chang rousted both of his comrades from their napping. "Wake up you two; it's time to let out the prisoner in cell number five."

"Which one was in number five again," Xiu, the older of the two, asked around a deep yawn. Being underground, it was hard to tell what time of day it was, and the guard's sleep schedule would get screwed up as a result. "Oh you don't remember," Chang asked with a sardonic grin. "It's our old friend The Ghoul."

"Again," Xiu cried, throwing his hands up in annoyance. "That guy must like being put into solitary or something." The three warders took their time walking to cell number five; Huo, the newest of the three guards, was curious. "You guys are talking as if you know this scum personally."

"We do, in a way," Xiu said, flashing one of his rare and notably unpleasant smiles. "Yeah, he's certainly been here enough times," Chang agreed.

"You mean to say he's been here a lot," Huo asked as the three of them stopped in front of the door of cell number five.

Chang chuckled. "This guy's been in prison for about a year and a half. If I had to guess, I'd say that he's spent about a third of that time locked up down here. Dozens of infractions for disrespectful behavior towards prison staff, numerous assaults…"

"And let's not forget murder," Xiu interjected, jerking his finger towards the cell door. "This one's sitting on at least four bodies."

When Huo looked at the door of cell number five, there was a trace of fear in his eyes and tension in his demeanor; sweat was beginning to gather on his brow. "The Ghoul? That's a pretty weird name though."

"Ghoul is not his name, it's just something we call him," Xiu replied with a dismissive wave at the newbie's ignorance.

"So then why do you call him that," the puzzled Huo asked, curiosity momentarily taking precedence over fear.

Peering through the peephole, Chang gave a grunt before turning his neck so that he could look at the other warder. "If you want to know, come see for yourself."

Hurrying over to the peephole, Huo looked into the dim interior or the cell. A man, a little on the short side, was standing with his back towards the door. Clearly visible on his back was a massive tattoo of a weeping demon riding upon the back of a lion-turtle; the characters down his back spoke four words, '_I cry for blood.' _

The prisoner in cell number five heard the sound of the peephole in the door being opened and turned the scarred half of his face to look behind him. He twisted his torso and cracked his back. '_Looks like it's time for me to get out of here.'_

* * *

Returning to general population after being locked away in solitary confinement always brought a feeling of relief to Lee. He had never appreciated just how much he missed feeling the sensation of sunshine on his skin and breathing fresh air until he was forcibly removed from it. The three guards escorted Lee back to the eastern block. Since he had been made into a member of the Myriad of Swords- the secret brotherhood headed by Sao Feng- his lodgings had been moved into the older section of the prison.

As he was led back to his cell, Lee nodded to the various greetings that were sent his way. Upon reaching their destination, the guards led the scarred prisoner into his cell before ordering him to hold his arms out. Without a word, Lee complied and waited until Xiu unlocked the heavy shackles which 

bound his wrists together. As soon as his hands were free, the young inmate immediately tried to rub the feeling back into them; the guards really did tighten those things too damn much.

"Welcome back."

"Hmph…" Lee grunted by way of reply, not even bothering to look up; he recognized the voice that had spoken to him as belonging to Jiji. "It's not as if I was even gone for all that long this time."

Jiji had to admit that the kid was telling the truth with that statement; he had only been gone for two days. In the past Lee had been known to disappear for weeks, even months at a time. The veteran convict made a small exhibition of picking at his fingernails before he asked the question that he asked Lee every time he came back from the hole. "So, what did you do this time?" As expected, Jiji got the usual response; an angry glare.

"Nothing, the same as always." Upon seeing Jiji's incredulous look, Lee felt his temper starting to rise. "What," he asked, the now well known dangerous edge invading his voice. Jiji rolled his eyes in response; he was used to the kid's temperamental nature by now. Raising one of his hands, the older convict began to count off his talking points.

Index finger. "First of all, don't try an' pretend that you've never done anything to warrant being sent to the hole; otherwise you wouldn't be one of _us_."

Middle finger. "Second of all, you have to do something to get sent to the hole. I'm not saying that the guards have gotta send you down there for a good reason, but they at least have to have an excuse."

Ring finger; this time accompanied with an obnoxious smile. "Do you really need me to go on?"

Lee snorted, but didn't give the older man any indication that he wanted him to continue. "Well, like I said," Lee retorted stubbornly, "I didn't do anything."

Jiji and Lee looked at each other for a moment before the older of the two finally spoke. "Du?"

"Du," Lee nodded in response, spitting out the single syllable as if it were the vilest curse he knew.

"Cocksucker." Jiji was well aware of the animosity between Sergeant Du and Lee. After Lee had decorated half of the laundry room with another man's grey matter, the good sergeant had found himself removed from his former position. Apparently, the commandant frowned upon the continuing violence in the laundry room; assaults could be overlooked, but gruesome murder was taking things a little too far. Du had found himself bounced from his comfortable position in the prison laundry and given the unsavory and often dangerous job of overseeing the prison work details. From that time onwards, Du's already virulent hatred for the half-breed had grown exponentially.

"All of the times that I've been written up for infractions or violations, it was just Du trying to get at me," Lee growled. The scarred prisoner neglected to mention that his trips down to the hole were also accompanied by beatings from the burly guard. Lee swore to himself that he would kill the bastard if he ever got the opportunity.

Seeing that Lee had begun fiddling with his White Lotus tile- a sure sign that the young man's mood was darkening- Jiji decided that he would let the kid have some time to himself. With a final word of parting, the veteran prisoner left the younger man to brood.

* * *

The yard was without a doubt the Lee's favorite place in Jade Passage. Admittedly, that wasn't saying much. Still, the scarred prisoner was a firebender; any exposure to direct sunlight made him feel so much more… more… well, he couldn't really put how it made him feel into words. It just felt fulfilling somehow. The other reason why he liked the yard was because he could exercise. The prisoners weren't allowed to have weights, so the inmates improvised using sacks filled with well water and each other's bodies as resistance.

Taking one of the large sacks from Badou, Lee began his set. Stripped to the waist, he began lifting the sack up and down in controlled movements. The scarred prisoner allowed himself to become lost in the rhythm. The contraction and relaxation of his muscles were soothing. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Repeat… repeat… repeat.

Lee recognized that being a prisoner in Jade Passage for over a year had changed him in many ways. The one that he noticed the most was in his physique; though he retained his naturally slim build, he had added a noticeable amount of bulk over the last seventeen months.

It was only to be expected really; the food that they served in prison was heartier than what was typically served in the Fire Nation- and since he was now a member of Sao Feng's faction, he was able to get three whole meals a day- so he had gained a good deal of weight. Add to that the fact that there was really nothing else to do in Jade Passage besides exercise; the result, a more muscular Lee.

Lee's reflections on this and other changes that he had undergone during his time of incarceration was broken by the presence of Sao Feng's right hand man, Ngo, signaling him to approach the corner were the elder brothers of the Myriad of Swords sat playing a game of Gaeta's Dice.

Lee presented himself to the circle of old men and kowtowed before Sao Feng and the other elders. Despite having performed this act dozens of times over the last year, Lee could not help but feel a small tinge of self-loathing. He was a Prince; even though the experiences of the last four years had stripped him of much of his sense of entitlement, he still found it more than a little degrading to prostrate himself before the feet of criminals. "That's enough boy," Sao Feng quipped. "You'll give yourself back problems before your time."

"What do you need," Lee asked, getting straight to the point. Sao Feng, Ngo, and the other old men exchanged sighs and world-weary glances. The kid made a good member of the brotherhood, but he was utterly ignorant to the rules of polite conversation. "Just checking up on you; you were put in the hole by Sergeant Du again I see."

Lee shrugged as if to say that it was no big deal, but Feng could tell that the young man's act of nonchalance was just that; an act. To be completely honest, the youngster worried the old man. Though Lee was very good at concealing it, Feng could tell that Lee was a _very_ angry young man; young angry 

men with no futures tended to do stupid things. Still, no use in dwelling on such unpleasant thoughts, the past was the past after all.

"How's the tattoo on doing," Ngo eagerly asked. The old man was an avid artist and was the prison's unofficial grandmaster in the art of tattooing; he considered the piece that he had put on Lee as some of his best work yet.

"It itched for a while, but its fine now," the young man replied. Lee ranked the process of having the tattoo applied as one of the most tortuous of his entire life, which was saying something. He took a considerable amount of pride that he had made it through the whole thing without passing out once.

The conversation continued in this same vein for several more minutes; the old men would exchange pleasantries and small talk in between dice rolls, while the young man would sit, nod, and grow steadily more annoyed at the fact that they had yet to talk about anything of importance. It got to be too much for Lee to stand when the elders somehow got onto the subject of digestion.

"Look, did you call me here for a reason," Lee snapped angrily, all sense of decorum disregarded. Brushing off the disrespect displayed by someone below their station, the elders simply stopped their conversations and looked towards Sao Feng.

The old man of the mountain directed an imperious look towards Lee; not for the first time Lee wondered how Sao Feng could go from being paternalistic to frightening in a matter of seconds. The young inmate felt an involuntary twinge of nervousness.

"That reaction of yours is exactly why we called you over here," Sao Feng barked. "When I look at you, do you know what I see? I see a kid that is filled with enough anger and bitterness for ten men who acts like he has everything under control. From anger, there comes violence," at this point Feng's face broke into a small smile. "Don't misunderstand; I like violence, but only when I can control it!"

Sao Feng paused long enough for his words to sink in before continuing. "What I am saying is, you snapped at us, _us, you elders,_ over something as trivial as a conversation running too long for your liking! Imagine what you could do to someone who had truly wronged you?"

Feng saw Lee's good eye widen slightly; the younger inmate had gotten the hint. "I don't have any intentions of doing anything to Du," Lee replied a smidge too defensively for Sao Feng's taste. Having someone acting defensive often meant that you had just caught them in a lie.

"You know what they say about intentions," Ngo snapped. "We have power, but there are just some things that no one can protect you from." The other elders nodded sagely at Ngo's words, some shooting scathing looks at Lee.

Lee simply sat mute while the elders continued to vent their criticisms of his character. There was a long list of them. Through it all he sat without saying a word. How could he? He may have been born Prince of the Fire Nation, but inside of Jade Passage, he was just another vassal.

* * *

Sergeant Du was not in a very good mood today. No, today was certainly not a day where he had felt eager to get out of his bed. But then again, that was how he had felt about most days, ever since he had been removed from his position as the head guard in the laundry room. He had had a sweet setup before. He got to work inside, away from the hot sun in the summertime and the biting cold of the fall and winter months. He didn't get rained on, snowed on; the prisoners were mostly docile and submissive.

But now? Oh…now he had so much to worry about! He had to worry about coordinating the expeditions away from Jade Passage and bringing the inmates into contact with civilians. He had to worry about keeping said prisoners from escaping and harming said civilians. He had to worry about the weather, insects and all kinds of things.

And who was to blame for all of his newfound headaches? Why none other than that dirty little Fire Nation half-breed. It was all his fault; had the little bastard had the courtesy to seek his revenge somewhere other than Du's laundry room, then he would still have his old job.

Given the situation, it was only fair that Du be allowed to have some payback. Every opportunity he could get, he would write the kid up for infractions and report him for insubordination. The little shit had made life difficult for Du, so Du was determined to make life hell for the scar-faced kid. Turnabout was a bitch.

Satisfaction, however, eluded the good sergeant. He could write up the kid as many times as he wanted, but that still did nothing to sate the guard's rage. As far as Du was concerned, no one with even a drop of Fire Nation blood had any business being in _his_ country. Everyday that that scar-faced abomination breathed in the air of the Earth Kingdom, Du felt his insides twist in fury and his hands shook with poorly suppressed rage. His petty attempts at revenge- and they were truly no more than petty- disgusted him. He was disgusted that he couldn't do more. Disgusted that he was not allowed to do the one thing that would satisfy-….

'_Wait…_' Du awakened from his internal rant when a sudden idea struck him. He was not allowed to do anything on his own, that much was true. '_But with a good enough excuse, my problems could be over by the end of the week!'_

Suddenly, a miraculous thing happened. The shone brighter. The air smelled fresher. Sergeant Du felt light at heart. Oh yes, today was going to be a good day. He could tell.

* * *

In prison, every inmate has something that a guard can use as a handle. No matter how institutionalized a man is, he always has something- a keepsake or memento of some kind- that connects him to life on the outside. If a guard can find out what that handle is, then he's got the inmate be the balls.

It didn't take long for Sergeant Du to figure out what scar-face's handle was. After a day and a half of observations, he noticed that the kid seemed to be fixated on some kind of small object that he kept hidden in his left pocket. Throughout the day the brat would take it out and either stare at it obsessively, or grip it and chant some kind of mantra.

Now that he knew the kid's handle, the next step would be easy. Gathering two of his flunkies to go with him, Du went in search of the scar-faced prisoner. The sergeant sported a sizable grin on his face; this was going to be fun.

* * *

Recreation time was over; as Lee and the other prisoners were being moved back to their cells, Lee felt a none-too-gentle tap on his shoulder. Whipping his head around to see who it was that was trying to get his attention he was met by the grim visage of a scraggly faced guard.

"You come with me," the guard barked, grabbing Lee roughly by the collar of his shirt. Lee angrily shouldered the hand away. Guard or no guard, he wasn't going to let this man treat him any way that he wanted to.

"What the hell for," Lee snapped back. The guard, in turn, jabbed Lee sharply in the gut with his cudgel and replied, "That's for me to know and for you to shut the hell up and not give me any shit! You want to go back to the hole so soon?"

Lee didn't give him any shit.

The scar-faced prisoner did not feel too apprehensive as the guard led him out of the line and towards one of the empty storehouses scattered about the grounds of Jade Passage; guards made a regular practice of shaking down inmates when they thought they had valuables or information. It had never happened to Lee before, but he supposed that it was bound to happen sometime. Besides, it wasn't like he had anything of value to give to the greedy bastards. All they would take from him would be pocket lint.

Lee's whole view of the situation changed when he was shoved into the storehouse and came face to face with Sergeant Du; a Sergeant Du who was currently grinning like an idiot. Lee's stomach twisted in disgust and fear. He was alone, in a room with three guards- one of which who hated him to the depths of his soul- with no weapons and no chance of anyone coming to help him.

While the scraggly faced guard stood in the door frame, Du and the other guard moved to surround Lee so that the young prisoner was blocked on three sides. "Good to see ya' kid. How've things been with you?"

Lee, never one to waste time with idle banter, simply glared at the larger man. "You know exactly how I've been. What the fuck do you want?"

Not missing a beat, Du continued on as if the younger man hadn't spoken. "Cause lemme tell _you_, things have been goin' pretty bad for me lately. I lost my good job, I gotta work in the muck all day with lousy cons like you; it's been a real trial, lemme tall ya."

Lee was unmoved by the guard's tale of woe. "What does any of that have to do with me?" The question was voiced innocently. It had the desired effect breaking Du's veneer of tranquility. Du made an ugly face, the facade of good humor dropped in an instant.

"You know exactly what this has ta do with you, you lil' bitch! I just figure that I'm owed a lil' somethin' for all of the trouble you caused me."

"Strip im," Du commanded to his two flunkies. Lee got himself undressed without any resistance; they wouldn't be getting anything worth keeping off of his person; Lee smirked. They were just wasting their time.

Lee's feelings of confidence lasted until he saw one of the guards remove a small round object out of one of his pants pockets.

'_Uncle…_' he had completely forgotten! "Don't touch that," Lee shouted in anger. The rational part of his mind cursed him for being a fool. He should be pretending like he didn't care! He really shouldn't care at all! It was just an old Pai Sho tile! In the grand scheme of things, losing it wouldn't matter! His mind screamed at him to think rationally about his situation.

His heart and his gut told his mind to shut the hell up. That was Uncle's, Iroh's, White Lotus tile! Seeing the prisoner's reaction, Du smiled and made as if to pocket the tile. Without even a shred of concern over what the consequences of his actions might be, Lee shot forwards to try to take the tile out of the sergeant's filthy hands.

Two pairs of strong arms wrestled the scarred prisoner to the ground; Du's two flunkies had jumped him. Lee struggled violently, writhing like a wounded cat-otter, trying to break free from the guard's strong grips.

Sergeant Du was trying very hard to keep a straight face through the whole ordeal. Watching the two guards struggling to keep a practically naked man shouting obscenities pinned to the floor was a sight that he was not treated to every day. Comedic value aside, the kid's actions also signified to Du that his suspicions about the kid's attachment to the tile that was currently clutched in his left hand were right on the money.

Now that the kid seemed to be appropriately riled up, it was time to take it to another level. Dropping to one knee so that he could approach the same level that the now prone prisoner was on, Du palmed Lee's head and forced the youngster to look upwards. The sergeant held the White Lotus tile in front of Lee's face.

"This tile means a lot to you, don't it," Du sneered. "I used ta have things that I cared about. They're all gone now thanks ta _you people_. Let him up!"

At their sergeant's command, the two guards picked Lee up off of the ground, but kept a hold on both of his arms. "You've been makin me lose things since you showed up here; it's only fair that you lose something too."

With that, Du dropped the Pai Sho tile on to the floor and crushed it beneath the heel of his boot and Lee felt his entire world being crushed along with it. A sound halfway between a sob and a scream ripped its way from his throat.

'_Uncle. Uncle! UNCLE!!_'

He had been crushed. His uncle had just been crushed, ground into the earth like he was nothing more than an insect. Unbidden tears flooded Lee's eyes; he didn't care. He had lost his uncle again. He had failed yet again.

Hatred, the likes of which he had never experienced before surged through the scarred young man. Using strength fueled by fury and sadness and hate, the prisoner ripped his way free from the two men who were restraining him. With speed that he never knew he possessed, he shot at Du and had his hands around the larger man's neck.

Whole world was red. Lee tightened his already vice-like grip on Du's throat. The Sergeant looked absolutely horrified; good. Lee wanted the man horrified. He wanted to see his eyes explode out of his head. He wanted to feel Du's blood on his hands. He wanted the last thing that Du ever saw to be _his_ scarred face as he sent the man to the other world.

All of a sudden, stars exploded before Lee's eyes; one of the guards had struck him in the head. The scarred inmate suddenly found that his legs would no longer support his weight; he went down, hard.

"Don't hit him," Du croaked from where he was slumped over on the floor, one hand clutching his neck.

"Kill you… I'll kill you!" Lee screamed fury indescribable.

Though it hurt him to breathe, Du somehow managed a laugh. "Kill me," he croaked. "You don't, you can't kill _me_. I've just killed _you_."

"Attempted murder of a guard kid; that's death!"

* * *

Stupid things; he was always doing stupid things.

Interrupting his father's war council. Not fighting to defend himself during the Agni Kai. Traversing the world in search of the Avatar. Trying to break into the Northern Water Tribe's citadel all by himself. Believing his sister. Not taking the waterbender's offer to heal his uncle. How was he able to live for as long as he had?

The young man who called himself Lee sat- unmoving, unblinking, and unfeeling- in the back of the covered wagon that was currently en route to the execution grounds, in the foothills surrounding Jade Passage. Lee wondered why the administrators had decided to put the execution grounds outside the walls of the prison complex; it wasn't as if blood wasn't already being spilled on a daily basis inside the walls.

His trial for his assault on Sergeant Du had been speedy. With his "record of violent behavior" and "numerous disciplinary infractions" the commandant had sentenced him to death within a matter of minutes.

When his death sentence was announced, Lee felt nothing; he didn't have the energy to feel anything anymore.

When they clapped his wrists and ankles in iron restraints, he didn't complain. When they shoved him in the back of this rickety old cart, he uttered no words of protest. Not even the appearance Sergeant Du, who had stopped in to tell him that he would personally be driving the wagon to Lee's execution, stirred any kind of emotions in the young man.

He was, quite simply, drained; the vitality and determination that had once defined his life was had died.

"…over," Lee mumbled. For some absurd reason, he got the sudden urge to laugh. Laugh at the pitiful state that his life had fallen into.

"What'd you just say?"

The guard that sat in the back of the wagon with him sent the scarred prisoner a menacing look; there was always a guard. Lee, lacking the energy to raise his head to look the other man in the eye, decided to simply speak louder this time. After all, these could very well be his last words.

"I said, it's finally over." The scar-faced young man broke out in uncontrollable giggles.

The guard, a red-faced fellow who couldn't have been that much older than the condemned man, was becoming increasingly disturbed by the second. He had led men to their deaths many times in the past; some wept like babies, some just sat stoically resigned to their fates. Some tried to ease the tension in their hearts by cracking painfully humorless jokes.

But this guy! He was giggling like a schoolgirl; the worst part was that the guard could tell that it wasn't the bitter laughing of a dying man. No, these laughs were filled with genuine mirth.

"What's so funny, eh," the red-faced guard asked. "If I were you, I wouldn't be finding this situation very funny."

Lee lifted his head and looked at the guard as if he was noticing the other man for the first time. "I'm laughing at myself; forgive me. It's just that… I think I've come to some kind of grand epiphany about my entire life, and now I'm about to die."

"I'm still not seeing how any of that is funny," Red Face rumbled, even more confused than he was before.

"It's the irony," Lee replied. Seeing that the last word meant absolutely nothing to the guard, the scar-faced prisoner mumbled something about "ignorant peons" before giving his explanation.

"My life's turned out the opposite of what anybody would have expected it to. I mean, when you look at me now, what do you see. Just another condemned criminal who probably lived his whole life in the gutter, right? Somebody who has always lived without honor, right?"

Red Face could only nod in agreement. "Well, the truth is, where I grew up, I had ideals, drummed into me from birth. I had principles that determined how I lived my life; my honor was the most important thing in the world to me, more important than my own life. I lived my entire life by the principles I was raised by, always tried to do the right thing; the noble thing; the _honorable_ thing. Look where I am now."

"That's a pretty sad story," Red Face said in tones suggesting that he really didn't give a damn about the condemned man's feelings. "And this is all hilarious because…"

Lee sighed. "It's funny because I just realized... if I had been more of a bastard, I wouldn't be in the situation that I'm in right now."

Red Face still looked slightly confused; Lee lamented his horrible luck one last time. He was going to die in an hour and the spirits had not even seen fit to bless him with some intelligent conversation. Fuck it.

"You know what, forget I said anything."

As the wagon continued to rumble along the dirt paths- the Songhay Dominion didn't posses many proper roads- that twisted through the steep hills outside of Jade Passage, Red Face and Lee sat in silence. Having exhausted his sudden urge to be sociable, Lee passed the time by counting how many times he felt the wagon bounce from whatever obstruction that Sergeant Du drove over.

_Bounce…bounce… shake…bounce… shake… shake… bounce… shake… shake, shakeshakeshakeshake! _Lee found himself thrown violently against one side of the wagon, shoulder first.

'_What the hell!?' _The whole world seemed to be coming undone. As both convict and guard were jostled about the interior of the wagon, an explanation for the ruckus surrounding him dawned upon Lee. Earthquake!

All of a sudden, everything seemed to happen at once. The team of ox-mules panicked; despite Du's efforts to control them, the beasts tried to break away from their restraints and flee. The wagon quickly lost control and was sent, team and all, careening off of the narrow dirt path and down the side of the hill, a tumbling mass of man, ox-mule, and wood.

Lee felt the sensation of weightlessness for a brief second before he landed hard on the floor- or was it the roof- of the covered wagon. The whole vehicle was skewed at a wild angle. Everything was starting to go dark and-

'_NO, NO! I can't rest now! I have a chance. I HAVE A CHANCE!_'

Through sheer force of will, Lee kept himself awake. He had a chance to live. He had a chance to escape; this was _not_ the time for weakness. The scarred prisoner struggled to make it to his feet; shooting pains raced up his left leg from his ankle as he tried to stand up. He tentatively tried to see if the limb would support his weight; it did. It felt like he had a sprain, but he could still walk.

The next problem was the shackles; Red Face had the keys that unlocked the ones binding his ankles, which meant that Du probably had the ones that unlocked the wrist restraints on him somewhere. The 

scarred prisoner quickly located Red Face's keys and used them to unlock his ankle restraints. As he moved to make his way out of the wagon, Lee heard a groan behind him. Red Face had regained consciousness.

The young man's wrist restraints didn't allow for a very wide range of motion, but they provided enough leeway for Lee to wrap the chain from his discarded ankle restraints around the guard's throat. Forcing a hard knee into the man's back, Lee tightened his grip on the chain and jerked his body backwards with all his might.

Red Face clawed at the chain encircling his neck; it did him no good. Lee held on until the man's thrashing slowed, then finally stopped completely.

'_One down, one to go._'

Lee struggled through the broken ruins of the wagon's door and looked around. His ears were assaulted by the piercing screams of wounded and dying ox-mules. Working his way around to the front side of the wagon, the scarred prisoner saw the ox-mules, a wagon wheel, and splinters of various sizes, but no sign of Du or the keys.

Cursing, Lee limped over to the other side of the wagon. Jackpot! There was Sergeant Du, with his back turned towards Lee. The guard was peering around one edge of the wagon, trying to see if there was anyone hiding on the other side.

"DU!" No use in playing it quiet, not now. The sergeant's head whipped around to stare at the young man standing less than ten feet away from him.

"Give me the keys to these shackles," Lee barked in the most authoritative tone he could muster. It wasn't a threat, it was a command; the command of addressing someone inferior to himself. Du's face- half covered in blood from a cut on his brow that was leaking- contorted in rage.

"An' just what are you gonna do to take'em," the irate sergeant snapped back. He stomped towards the prisoner; he wouldn't be making it to the execution grounds today, but sure as hell, there was going to be an execution.

Lee stood still as Du got ever closer. As Du got within arm's length, the scarred prisoner's face twisted into a wicked smirk and Du had a moment to ponder this change in the kid's demeanor before his entire face was consumed by flames.

The large man had time for a single, piercing scream before he fell over, dead from the fire which engulfed his entire head in a little over a second. Lee looked down at the corpse with more than a small amount of pride. His Breath of Fire had only ever been able to produce steam before; he doubted whether his uncle, the famed Dragon of the West, could have done any better.

He had not been able to practice his firebending katas for seventeen long months, but there was one aspect of his art that he could work on; breath control. He had spent countless hours working on contracting his abdominal muscles and breathing from his stomach, rather than his throat and lungs. The Breath of Fire technique was all about building up the right diaphragmatic pressure in the abs and releasing fire in a controlled stream.

Lee cheerfully liberated the key from the now crispy Sergeant Du and used it to unlock the restraints around his wrists. He then got down to the business of stripping the two men he had just killed, removing the few valuables that they had on them. He took Red Face's trousers and boots; the boots pinched his toes a bit, but he could make do.

From Du's corpse, Lee took the man's cloak and long knife. As much as he wanted to deny it, the young man felt a small bit of sympathy for the late sergeant; Lee knew the horrific sensation of feeling your face melt very well.

"..." Lee spat on the corpse anyway. He still hated that bastard.

Cutting an uninjured ox-mule out of its harness with Du's knife, the escapee stopped to ponder what he was going to do now. He had managed to escape, but where was he supposed to go now?

The way Lee saw it, he had two options; he could either head north into the mountains or south towards the central plains of the Earth Kingdom. The smart thing to do would be to head south. Food would be easy to come by and he knew that part of the country fairly well, having traveled across so much of it.

By contrast, he knew next to nothing about the Northern regions of the Earth Kingdom. Were he to head north into the mountains, he would essentially be traveling blind. He had no idea where any villages were located, plus he was unfamiliar with the Songhay Dominion's flora, fauna, and geography. He'd be taking an amazing risk by striking out to the north.

It took Lee less than a minute to decide his route; he would be heading north. He would have a harder time of it, but at least the mountains wouldn't be swarming with search parties looking for an escaped convict; that's what he hoped anyway.

As Lee led the only uninjured ox-mule up a small foot path headed north, he was fairly certain that he had just done another stupid thing. Still, all things considered, he felt a sense of confidence that he had not felt in a very long time.

Something as trivial as an unknown mountain wilderness wasn't about to kill him.


	5. Chapter 5

_What's happening young world? Slimjames is back from the dead and has got a brand new chapter. The reviews that I've been getting so far for this story have been great. I hope that this one lives up to the expectations of all my readers. There are going to be some major transitions in this part. Also in regards to the question posed by **sev7n**_, _the truth is that I had already thought up an ending to the chapter and I guess I got so caught up in writing that ending that I completely disregarded common sense. Truthfully, until you brought that point up, I did not even think to have Zuko do that. Anyway, enough talk, time for some action!_

Chapter 5

The temple of Sowjanya-storehouse of the holy shrine of the Havad Gita- was a place of much renown and reverence for the Indu people of the mountainous northwest of the Songhay Dominion. Over 1900 years old, the shrine housed the ashen remains of the second Indu Guru, Ranma. It was the place where, over a century ago the "lost" Guru, Pathik, had first learned the ways of Chakra.

Constructed in a mountain valley in a spot where, according to legend, the First Guru physically transcended the borders of this world and passed into the spirit world, the temple was truly awe inspiring. The structure was small in size when compared to the massive Air Temples, or with the gigantic monuments constructed by the Sun Warriors, but that was of little consequence; the true beauty of the temple of Sowjanya lay in the details.

Every open surface of the great stone building was covered with exquisitely rendered carvings detailing the history and accomplishments of the proud Indu people. Beautiful murals, the equal of any in all the four nations, illustrated the ancient oral tradition of the mountain communities. Vibrantly painted depictions of the legendary warrior kings slaying otherworldly monsters vied for attention alongside the ancient Gurus communing with the Avatar and banishing malevolent spirits.

The temple of Sowjanya served as the main storehouse of the culture and identity of the Indu people; it was a source of pride, it provided the Indu's with a symbol that proved to the rest of the world that they were a people of worth.

Most importantly- as far as two young people were concerned- the temple of Sowjanya provided a place to hide.

* * *

Within the confines of the temple grounds, all was silent. The hustle and bustle of daytime the daytime had given way to the solemnity of which accompanied nightfall. The two miles worth of interlocking corridors which led parishioners and pilgrims to the various shrines, relics and luck fountains stood deserted. The temple novices tasked with maintaining the conditions in the temple- being the obedient girls they were- had long since retired to their own quarters hours ago under the watchful eyes of the temple nuns.

The picture of tranquility in the quiet temple, however, was inaccurate.

"Ummh… uhh… uhh…" A young, but obviously masculine voice grunted with exertion.

"Unnh… unnh… f-faster… go faster!" An emphatic feminine voice whose pitch was, curiously, increasing by the second said, or rather, moaned.

Not for the first time, the scarred young man paused mid-thrust to look around nervously to make sure that an irate temple nun was not coming to bash his head in with a vase. Not for the first time he warned his companion to keep her voice down; they were in an empty building and sound carried a long way.

Not for the first time, the pretty temple novice squeaked out a half-hearted apology before capturing her scarred lover's lips in a kiss of unbridled lust. Not for the first time, the pretty temple novice ground her hips into the scarred young man's nether regions; the young man quickly shut up and got back to what he had been doing before he paused.

"Uuwwoohh… Lee… Lee!" Damn it. Her voice was starting to rise again.

'_Can this girl not hear herself at all?' _

Granted, he knew that he was adding to the noise the two of them were making, but he still had the presence of mind to keep his groans of exertion as quiet as possible. He just assumed that females were strange like that.

Releasing his grip from the girl's round buttocks, Lee worked his hands upward along her body before taking hold of the girl's pert breasts. He caressed them softly as his partner began to slowly rotate her hips. As she gradually increased her speed, Lee could feel his encased member throbbing in building levels of excitement. That certainly was a new trick; a good one at that. But he was getting too close; time to change postures.

Ordering the girl to cease in her movements, the scarred man and his companion stood up. Pushing the girl backwards onto a ceiling support column, Lee grabbed both of her legs and hitched them under his arms, bringing her hips forward closer to his body. With a final quick kiss to the red-faced temple novice, he plunged back into the girl.

"Unnh… unnh…. Unnmh…" Slowly, softly. Ease your way in.

Bodies slick with the sweat of their passions, the two carried on their dance. Lee had never before understood why his uncle had compared the act of making love to a dance, but he thought that he now had a better understanding. You respond to your partner's movements, maintain a rhythm, and respond to any changes in tempo. Simple really.

What wasn't so simple to Lee was how he had ended up mid-coitus in what was arguably the holiest spot in the Northern Earth Kingdom, with a girl who was supposed to eventually become a nun.

Things had started off innocently enough. After he had escaped from the prison wagon and gone into the mountains, he had spent several weeks just wandering around. He had followed the foot paths in hopes of reaching some form of civilization, but he had quickly become hopelessly lost. He had eventually come across a small mountain hamlet where an opportunistic local agreed to transport him to an actual town in exchange for Lee's ox-mule.

Having no other choices available to him, an already malnourished Lee had agreed to the offer-resolving to burn the man to a crisp the second he started acting suspicious. Thankfully, for both parties, the mountain man was true to his word; he dropped off the half-starved escaped convict in the valley of Indu.

While he had been wandering around aimlessly in the mountains, Lee had attempted to devise a plan of action. He figured that when he got to a town or city of good size, he'd simply blend into the local population; aside from golden eyes and a fairer skinned complexion, someone from the Fire Nation looked like someone from the Earth Kingdom. Then he would just keep a low profile. When the authorities got tired of looking for him, he would just move on.

Upon reaching the valley, Lee realized very quickly that he would have to come up with a new plan. There was absolutely no way that he could blend into Indu society; he stuck out like a male junecock during mating season.

For one thing, he looked absolutely nothing like any of the people who lived here. He was fair skinned; the Indu people had skin as dark as the members of the Water Tribes. The Indu were distinguished among the many races of the Earth Kingdom by their long, proud noses, jet black hair and proud, full lips. Where Lee's face was sharp and angular, theirs were more rounded. It was obvious that he would never to able to hide out here and expect anyone to not take notice.

He couldn't just leave though; his first adventure through the mountains had almost seen him die from starvation and exposure, and at the time, he was still much too weak to even think about attempting to do that again. And so, he had joined the line of penniless vagrants who relied on the kindness of the sisters of the temple of Sowjanya for food and shelter.

It was in one of the temple's soup kitchens that he met Priya- who, Lee had noticed, had started to maul his back with her nails; a sure indication that she was almost at her limit- a pretty little temple novice with warm brown eyes, flowing ebony hair and a nurturing personality.

After he had visited the soup kitchens a few times, Lee began to notice that Priya seemed to be paying more attention to him than any of the other girls. At first he was horrified, thinking that the girl had somehow found out that he was a fugitive and would report him to the authorities. As time went on, and Lee found himself _not_ being clapped in irons and sent back to Jade Passage for execution, he started to suspect that maybe she wasn't trying to turn him in.

But then what did she want? Lee was absolutely baffled by the girl's behavior. When he moved about the soup kitchen, he could feel her eyes following him, and when he turned to acknowledge her, she'd quickly direct her eyes towards the floor or find something very interesting to stare at on one of the walls.

Lee's puzzlement at Priya's behavior had continued until one of his homeless comrade's had voiced her opinion on the situation.

_(Flashback) _

"_You know child," an old and nearly toothless Indu woman had told him, "that pretty novice girl seems to fancy you." _

_The normally dour young man had actually chuckled at the ridiculousness of the old woman's statement. _

"_And what gave you that crazy idea Bava? I'm just some dirty wanderer who came down from the hills one day and has been leeching off the charity of this temple ever since." _

_Bava had rolled her eyes at the lad's thickness. "Explain all of the attention that she's been paying you."_

"_Explain why she would be attracted to me," Lee had countered back. It certainly wasn't due to his charm. He had been ill-tempered and surly to pretty much everyone he had met since he had gotten to the valley. _

"_Well, first of all, you're different from all of the boys around here," the old woman explained in between gulping down a mouthful of tortoise-hare stew. "You're obviously not an Indu, and the fairer skinned people usually don't come this far into Industan if they can help it, so that just brings up curiosity about who you are and what you're doing here."_

_Lee was far from being convinced. "I'm far from being convinced by just that."_

_All of those reasons were just stupid! "I just showed up here one day; she doesn't even know who I am. I could be a bandit or murderer for all she knows." Lee chose to gloss over the fact that, technically, he really was a murderer._

"_Besides," he continued, "It's not as if I've been particularly nice to her either." _

_Bava alternated between speaking and dipping her pieces of bread into her stew in order to eat them without hurting her exposed gums. _

"_Folly of youth," the old woman said after swallowing the last bite of her bread. "At that age, good girls like her tend to like the mysterious bad boy types."_

_The scarred vagrant smirked nastily at the old woman. "Speaking from personal experience are you?"_

_Bava brushed off the young man's statement. "You may not believe it child, but I was young once too. I know about these things."_

_Lee looked at Priya from out of the corner of his good eye; not enough to be obvious, but enough so that he could get a good look at her. She was attractive, no doubt about that. Summoning up his courage, the scarred young man picked himself out of his seat and approached the pretty young temple novice._

_Lee figured that he should give it a shot. He knew that he was no ladies man; he had spent much of his puberty either out to sea, wandering the countryside or incarcerated. But he did know a few things; who knows what could happen? _

_(End Flashback)_

"Hahh, hahh, hahh, Lee! Lee I'm- ahh! I-I'm…"

Her breath was hitching in her throat. He could feel her muscles contracting around his member. Her legs had his torso locked in the now familiar death grip.

'_She's about to bust!'_

Damn did he feel guilty about doing this; not guilty enough to stop, but enough to make him feel slightly ashamed of himself. It wasn't as if he took some type of perverse pleasure out of defiling a sacred place like this. He had never intended to seduce her. Honestly he really hadn't! Things had just kind of worked out that way.

'_If_ _anything, she was the one who was being forward with me!'_ Self delusion could be very comforting at times.

Lee felt Priya go rigid, then spasm beneath his body as if she had just been shocked by one of his sister's lightning bolts; the novice had finally reached her climax. Her scarred paramour quickly pulled out to squirt his own seed onto her belly. She gave him a rank look which Lee just shrugged off; he wasn't trying to father any bastards while he was here.

"Look at me! I'm going to be all sticky… again," Priya sighed as she gathered her undergarments and novice's sari and veil from where they had been scattered across the floor of the shrine.

Lee took a moment to admire her backside as she bent over to collect some of her things. "You can just sneak into one of the rooms that have a fountain and just wash up right? I mean, you do have all of the keys."

"That's not the point," Priya replied while trying to accomplish the awkward task of putting on her underwear while holding the rest of her clothes at the same time. "I'll get in trouble if someone catches me out of the novice's dormitory at this time of night."

Lee shrugged his shoulders and replied, "At least you have a reason for being in the temple; if they caught you, you could just feed them some excuse and they'd just let you off. I on the other hand," Lee gestured to his still naked body, "would just be out of luck."

Laypersons were not allowed into the temple after the nuns completed their final services; the only reason why Lee was inside of the building now was because Priya had unlocked a side door and let him in.

As the temple novice ran off to find a fountain to wash off the various fluids that clung to her body, Lee began the search for his own clothing. Admittedly, there was not much to look for. Just the boots, pants, and shirt that he had taken from the now long dead Red Face and Sergeant Du. He collected the late sergeant's knife from where it had fallen near the alter of some tree spirit or whatever, and stuck the blade down the side of his right boot.

As he was just finishing up putting himself to rights, Priya reappeared. Lee noted that she looked markedly refreshed and in a much better mood than she had been in before. The scarred young man made a quick scan of the shrine in order to make sure that no evidence of what had been going on for the past hour remained to be discovered by a humble pilgrim.

As Priya made her way from the shrine and into the hall, she suddenly felt a pair of strong arms encircle her waist, wrapping her in a tight embrace. Her scarred lover's body was pressed tightly up against hers; she could feel his muscles through the thin shirt that he wore.

"You sure we can't have just a little bit more time," Lee asked in a throaty whisper, warm breath flowing past her ear. The boy had already begun exploring the contours of her body and left light, fleeting kisses on her neck.

"You know that we can't," the girl replied, though it was hard to keep the disappointment out of her voice. Her body yearned for more "play" time.

"We've only got a little while until sunrise and the nuns rouse us for the morning prayers."

With that, Lee gave a defeated sigh and slowly unwrapped his hands from around the girl's waist. "I know, I know," the scarred vagrant stated in the most apologetic tone he could muster, "No harm in trying though, is there?"

The pretty temple novice blushed and playfully shoved the scarred young man in the shoulder before leading the way out of the shrine and towards the old side door which Priya had let him in through in the first place.

"Good night, I'll see you again soon." With that, Lee began to walk out into the night.

"Wait a sec," Priya hissed in mock anger. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

Lee turned around and had the nerve to look puzzled for a moment before his face broke into a small smile. He approached the novice and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, bringing her into a warm embrace.

Cupping her chin in one of his hands, he brought her lips to his in a chaste kiss. A chaste kiss which quickly lost its chastity as Priya felt the boy's tongue playing along her teeth, seeking entry. She happily obliged him and felt the warm organ entering her mouth along with… wait, what was that?

Priya's eyes shot open in confusion and her heart began to race inside of her chest; something was being pushed down her throat. She quickly tried to pull away from Lee, only to find his left arm wound tightly around her waist, arresting any movements on her part. With the fingers on his right hand, Lee applied pressure to the girl's throat making sure that she swallowed whatever it was he was forcing down into her.

Then, just as quickly as it had begun, it ended. Lee released the girl from his hold and darted back a few feet. Priya noticed that he had an expectant look on his face; as if he was waiting for something interesting to happen.

"Wha-what did you do…"

She wanted to yell, scream, call for help, do something, but she just could not get her body to do anything. Priya could hardly feel it when her knees gave out and she started to tumble to the ground.

Lee darted forward and caught the immobilized girl before she connected with the ground. Priya struggled to pull herself free, but she could barely manage to move her arms even a few centimeters; she was utterly helpless.

"Don't struggle; it won't do you any good."

Lee lifted the terrified and confused temple novice and carried her back inside the doorway, laying her gently onto the tiled floor. He made sure to shut the door behind them. All that Priya found herself able to do was look at this person who was so different from the boy that she had known. This person's eyes were grim; his mouth was set in a hard line. When he spoke, his voice held neither warmth nor affection, only authority; the voice of someone to be obeyed.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Lee began, staring into the wide and watery eyes of his onetime paramour.

"The thing that I made you swallow was a Ling-Ze mushroom. It's a powerful muscle relaxant; you'll be paralyzed for a while but you won't be hurt."

At this point, Lee stood up and walked out of Priya's field of vision. Unable to turn her head due to her immobilized neck muscles, she had to wait until the scarred vagrant came back into the hallway. She saw him drop a sack to the floor, near his feet.

Lee rifled around through her clothing before taking out the heavy ring of keys that Priya had been keeping.

"I'm going to take these," he dangled them in her face to make sure that she could see what he was holding, "and I'm going to leave for a little while; but I will be coming back!"

"Just do as I say and this will all be over quickly."

Tucking away the keys in one of his pants pockets, Lee quickly gathered up his sack and moved, swiftly but silently, down the corridors and deeper into the temple. The temple novice was left alone on the floor in the darkened corridor, with no one to comfort her through the raging maelstrom of emotions that assaulted her heart and mind.

Sadness, guilt, fury, confusion; all mixed together, yet all separate and palpable in their own unique way. Utterly useless, all that Priya could do was weep. Swiftly but silently, she wept.

* * *

Things were finally starting to go Lee's way. Aside from the ugly weight of the guilt that was collecting in his stomach over deceiving Priya, of course; that was definitely bringing his mood down. Lee genuinely liked the girl; she had been very kind to him. Though he had resolved to no longer make himself a slave to false concepts like honor, the fact that he had actually done something like that still did not sit well with his conscience. He was silently thankful that he still had a conscience.

Lee treaded softly through the halls of the temple; he would have liked to have moved faster, but the boots which he wore on his feet had not been designed for temple robbers. His bag was already half filled with various trinkets which he had taken from several shrines. Lee jingled the pilfered ring of keys in his hand; things were so much easier when you could just unlock the doors instead of blasting them open.

The scarred thief opened yet another shrine, which seemed to be dedicated to a guru or spirit of some importance, judging by the amount of ornamentation in the room. Lee quickly made his way to the altar, turned, and scanned the room for the most valuable thing that he could take.

Oh! Those idols over there looked nice. Lee walked over and hefted one of the figurines. Real quality gold, judging by the weight and encrusted with precious stones too! He promptly grabbed all three and stuffed them into his sack.

The scarred young man patted the now bulging sack that hung at his side; he had had a good haul, but now seemed like a good time to call it a night. He didn't want his sack of loot to weigh him down too much while he was trying to make his escape to the next town, where he intended to pawn all of the items that he had taken.

Lee had put one foot out of the shrine's doorway before he stopped and turned back to the altar. How could he have been so stupid? He forgot the alms dishes! He quickly hurried back to the altar. It was one thing to have items that you could sell for cash, but nothing beat having actual Earth Kingdom tender.

Lee grabbed each of the bowls and upended their jingling contents into his sack. As he was pulling his arm back after resetting one of the bowls in its proper place, he felt his elbow hit something. Lee looked up just in time to see an ancient looking urn fall through space and shatter on the tile floor, emptying its ashen contents onto the ground.

"Shit!" Lee whispered under his breath. He had wanted to get in and out without leaving too much evidence of his having been there in the first place; he had only taken small things that would not attract much attention when they went missing. There was, however, no way that anyone was going to overlook the fact that he had just scattered one of their former leaders all over the floor.

'_That's what being greedy gets me,_' Lee thought ruefully. He quickly gathered up his stuff and headed back to where he had left Priya. Now, it was really time to get out of there.

* * *

Sokka liked numbers. Math, not so much; the numbers themselves however, he liked those very much indeed. And why did he like numbers so much? Simple; numbers couldn't lie to you. They gave you straight, factual, non ambiguous, answers devoid of any mystical mumbo jumbo or cryptic evasions like _'look within yourself to find the answer.'_

Numbers gave Sokka the straight facts. Sokka was broken from his reverie by the unusual sensation of the ground suddenly undulating beneath his feet, being thrown to the ground and landing head over heels into a prickle bush. Oh yeah! One more thing he liked about numbers; they had the decency to shut the hell up from time to time and let him think in peace.

"Do you mind?" Sokka yelled, indignation etched all over his face. The Water Tribe boy's cries of affronted dignity proved loud enough to cut through the dull rumble of moving earth and reach the ears of the young Avatar, Aang, and his equally young earthbending master, Toph.

"Sokka! Are you alright? What happened?"

Aang came first, looking concerned; Toph came second, looking annoyed. "You'd better have a darn good reason why you interrupted twinkle toes' training," the blind girl spat. When it came to training, Toph did not like to interrupted under any circumstances.

Sokka shot her a dirty look, though he knew the gesture was wasted as; a) she couldn't see him and; b) he was still ass over teakettle, so it was pretty hard for him to look up at her face while his chin was still in the dirt.

"Oh nothing special," Sokka replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Guy's just standing there, plotting the downfall of an evil empire when, all of a sudden, he finds himself face down in the dirt sharing conversation with a caterpillar. Hello little caterpillar, my name is Sokka and the entire world's out to kill me."

Aang rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment and made a short bow of apology to his upended friend. "My bad, sorry about that. I'm still kind of new to the whole earthbending thing, so it sometimes gets away from me."

Sokka picked himself up and dusted himself off and gave a sheepish grin to the younger boy. No matter how hard he tried, he could never hold on to his annoyance at any of his teammates for very long.

"You know what, forget about it," Sokka replied. "It's just that, with all that's happened to us in the past few weeks, we're all more than a little bit on edge."

Toph scoffed. "Talk about understatement of the century."

It was true, ever since the incident in the desert and their loss of Appa, everyone had been on edge. Aang had thrown himself into perfecting his earth and waterbending techniques with a single minded devotion previously unseen in the free spirited boy. The young Avatar alternated extreme periods of depression and tempered optimism.

Their situation was made worse by the fact that they had not had any time to lick their wounds after emerging from the desert. Princess Azula had apparently decided that she was no longer going to be chasing after the Avatar herself. In her stead, she had sent an army of bounty hunters and assassins after the group.

The team had tried to make their way immediately to Ba Sing Se in order to begin the search for Appa, but they had been forced to make several detours; detours which had taken them hundreds of miles north into the great mountain ranges of the upper Earth Kingdom.

While his teammates were worried over their missing bison, Sokka found himself more worried over the fact that Azula had stopped chasing after them. After all, the Avatar presented the biggest threat to the Fire Nation's ambitions of world domination. From what he had heard and observed of the Princesses' personality, Azula was both an egomaniac and a perfectionist; a person like that would _never_ trust a mission of such importance to anyone else.

'_Unless she has a bigger seal to skin.'_

A seal bigger than the Avatar; there was only one thing that Sokka could think of that would be a big enough prize for the Fire Princess to put her hunt for the Avatar on hiatus. Ba Sing Se, the biggest, fattest, seal there was. Sokka's gut told him that if the gang didn't get on the move to Ba Sing Se, and soon, then the information that he had found in the Grand Library would be useless.

"By the way, have you guys seen where my sister went?"

The young airbender shrugged. "No, I haven't seen her since me and Toph began our training and that was about an hour ago." Aang glanced at his earthbending teacher, who was apparently preoccupied with picking one of her ears.

Sensing the attention of the two boys, the blind girl continued to dig into her left ear as she spoke.

"Sugar Queen? I remember her saying something about going to find a place to refill her water skin, but that was a while ago."

Sokka twisted his back and heard the satisfying crackle of his spine snapping into place. Ah! There was nothing like a good stretch and crack- the two young benders both winced and wore similar grimaces at the display.

"Well, we'd better go find her. I think we've hid out here in these mountains long enough for the bounty hunters to have lost our trail. We should start preparing to head towards Ba Sing Se."

Aang nodded with an energy that had not been seen in the past few weeks. Ba Sing Se meant Appa, and Appa was more than enough motivation for the last airbender to get going.

Grabbing his staff from its resting spot against a small boulder, the avatar used airbending to snap the wings on his glider open.

"You guys can start taking down the camp. I can get to the stream faster through the air than if we tried to walk."

With those words spoken, Aang summoned a great gust of wind and propelled himself into the skies above.

* * *

Katarra was freaked out. Katarra was not mildly disturbed by weird shapes that she saw moving in the distance. She was not slightly apprehensive at the sudden, unearthly mist that had just decided, apparently on a whim, to envelope the entire area. 'Slightly apprehensive' and 'mildly disturbed' did not 

do justice to what she was feeling right now. Katarra was freaked out. Completely. Utterly. Totally. Freaked. Out.

It was not the incredibly freaky atmosphere that was causing Katarra to break down- though it certainly did not help the situation. The Water Tribe girl was not even overly concerned with the shapes that she saw moving in the mists; she was a master waterbender, after all. The thing that was making her lose her composure was the mist itself.

The mist shouldn't have been a problem. It was just water vapor, and Katarra was a waterbender; she could dispel nearly all of it with a wave of her hand. The problem was that she couldn't, she had tried- several times in fact- and had failed. That just was not possible; a bender not being able to affect their element to even the _slightest_ degree was unheard of!

The Water Tribe girl could feel the icy claws of fear clawing their way up her spine. This was serious; Katarra was just not the type of person who gave in to panic. She was starting to panic.

'_Calm down, calm down,'_ she screamed furiously inside of her head, willing her body to respond to her brain's commands. Her heartbeat slowed from frantic to elevated. She took a deep breath and her knees went from wobbly to rigid.

'_Just be cool. Be cool. Cold as ice.'_

She couldn't panic; panicking would only get her killed even quicker. She could handle this; sure she was in a weird situation, but nothing really dangerous had happened yet. Katarra's whole body tensed as she heard something growl in the distance. She quickly popped the cork on her water skin; nothing dangerous had happened yet, but it was best not to be caught unawares.

"UURRRRHHH…" the growl, there it was again! Katarra quickly dropped down into a defensive stance, prepared to quickly bend her water at the first thing that reared its head out of this damned mist. Suddenly, "…UURRRHHH!" there it was again! To her right?

That didn't make any sense. One beast or whatever this thing was shouldn't be able to move so far, so fast in only a few seconds.

'_Pack hunters?' _

A logical explanation; but if they were pack hunters, and if she was only just noticing that there were multiple enemies then that meant she was already surrounded.

* * *

Heavy footfalls pounded the ground behind her, propelling the weight of something large and heavy towards it's intended victim; a small female in blue, standing motionless and alone in the forest. The time for silent stalking was over, now was the time to strike, to tear, to rend!

Thirty feet! Twenty! Ten! Almost there! Almost there!

* * *

With a form so pristine that even Master Pakku would have been green with envy; Katarra whipped her body around and sent a spear of ice tunneling into the Thing's open mouth. Pitching herself into a quick roll, the Water Tribe girl nimbly avoided the Thing as the body's forward momentum continued to propel it towards her.

Katarra was back on her feet in under a second, beating her feet in the direction that she thought the stream was located. The adrenaline that came from the knowledge that she was fighting for her life surged through her veins, purging them of fear and doubt. No time to be afraid now; run! Fight! Survive!

She could hear the whatever they were chasing her down. She pumped her legs even faster; she was almost there, she could sense the water flowing barely a dozen yards in front of her. She heard the heavy footfalls of the creatures to her left and right, joining those that she already heard gaining on her from behind. They were trying to box her in, cut off her escape; the same way that tundra wolves surrounded and ran their prey to ground.

But Katarra was not about to be anybody's lunch. Finally reaching the stream, the Water Tribe girl did not pause at the muddy bank. Launching herself down the side of the steep embankment, the waterbender landed on the surface of the shallow stream, barely making a ripple in the calm water.

Wasting no time, Katarra swept her arms out to either side of her body, collecting much of the water in the stream around her arms. As one of the creatures attempted to follow her down the embankment, she swept her left water tentacle at the thing, swatting it aside like it was a bug and not some grotesque four legged beast. The creature's body flew through the air and landed with a sickening, and oddly wet, sound as its torso collided with a large boulder.

Her other pursuers slowed their own descent of the bank after witnessing what had happened to their companion. Katarra quirked an eyebrow; so they weren't just mindless creatures? Katarra gathered up even more water, while inching her way backwards. The remaining three creatures made their way slowly down the embankment, maintaining some distance from one another and making it impossible for Katarra to take them all out in one sweep. This might be harder than she thought; the water tentacle technique was a great power move, but it had its drawbacks. The long water appendages were unwieldy and were slow to retract after her initial attack.

She had seen how fast those things were; she might, _might_, be able to catch two of the creatures using the tentacles, but the third one would be on her and rip her to shreds before she even had a chance to react. As her mind frantically searched for answers on how to get herself out of this predicament, Katarra used the lull in the creatures' attack to examine her foes more closely.

They were unlike anything she had ever seen, or heard of for that matter. The creatures were around the size of a komodo-rhino, and they sported similarly hairless, scaly skin. Aside from the scales, their appearance was not at all reptilian. They walked about on four legs, the front two seemed to be slightly longer than the back two. The feet looked more like the paws of a tundra wolf than anything else, if a bit wider and with more space between the toes. The creature's head was dominated by its large jaws; the 

thing seemed to lack lips, so Katarra was treated to a full view of the monster's impressive and pointy teeth. Teeth that could potentially rip her in half in one bite.

But the thing that Katarra found the strangest of all was that these creature had no eyes; at least, none that she could see.

'_Okay, so they've got no eyes, which means they can't see me. Which means that they have to have some other way of detecting my presence, right,_' she thought to herself. Damn it! She knew that there was some way she could use that to her advantage, but she couldn't think of how! Man, she wished Sokka was here, he could think of something in no time.

Katarra saw that the eyeless freak creatures had lowered their bodies closer to the ground, the universal sign amongst predators that they were about to pounce. Ah, screw it. No more time to plan, so she was just going to have to wing it.

The creature to her left was the first to make it's move, the creature to her right following it barely a second later. Instead of standing still and letting them come at her, Katarra responded with a charge of her own.

Lifting the water tentacles over her head, she combined the two into one gigantic water ball. With a mighty heave, the waterbending master brought the water ball down in front of her body just as the first creature came within biting distance of her slender frame. Things happened very quickly from there.

In the time it took for the water ball to move from its position above Katarra's head, to impacting with the ground, the Water Tribe girl had built up as much pressure as she could inside the ball. Upon coming in contact with the ground, Katarra- in a split second- released the pressure in the ball and propelled her body upwards with a miniature geyser.

Retaining control of the water as she twisted in the air, Katarra carried her geyser with her as she fell towards the opposing bank. Landing heavily on her feet, the waterbending master manipulated her element around her body; she paused for an instant to collect herself before going on the attack.

She took a swift step forward and whipped a disk of razor sharp ice at the creature who had not gone on the attack against her. Not even pausing to see the results of her attack, the Water Tribe girl turned in one fluid motion and sent another monster flying head over hindquarters with the most powerful water whip she had ever managed to perform.

'_One more!_' By the Spirits of the Moon and the Ocean, what a rush this was! It was the rush of battle; the rush of displaying her innate superiority to her foes. Katarra hated feeling like this; she didn't like using her bending to fight, she only did it because she had to. To take gratification out of something as ugly as violence was repulsive to her… and yet…

"Come on," she roared in defiance at the last remaining creature that stood, motionless; impotent; unsure of what to do. It was as if it understood that the voice that was challenging it wasn't the property 

some girl. It was the voice of a liger, a lion-turtle, a dragon-wolf! Katarra wasn't afraid of this mist and she wasn't afraid of this monster either.

The eyeless freak creature charged. Katarra waited, waited until the thing passed over the small pool of water that she had collected a few yards in front of her. With a swift motion of her hands, it was done. The waterbending master's shoulders slumped as if they had just taken on some sort of invisible weight. For the first time, Katarra noticed that her right ankle was sore. She must have sprained it after coming down from the geyser.

The Water Tribe girl stalked past the body of the last creature on her way up the embankment and away from the stream. The monster stood, jaws hanging open limply, its body weight supported by the spear of ice which had impaled the eyeless freak through the gut. There was no blood. There was no blood anywhere from any of the creatures that she had just slain. That didn't make any sense at all.

Though she had emerged victorious from her little skirmish, Katarra felt even more ill at ease than she had before. Was it her imagination, or did the mist around her seem to close in on her tighter than before. She began finding it hard to breathe.

Suddenly, she heard the sounds; the sounds of the predators. Her heart began to sink like a scuttled boat. No, no, NO! This COULD NOT be happening, not right now. Scrambling on all fours up the embankment like a frightened toadmunk, Katarra struggled to the top and took off as fast as her injured ankle could carry her. She didn't care which direction she was going, she just had to get away!

Her heart raced, she could feel herself panicking, and there was nothing that she could do to stop it this time. All she could think to do was run. She took a step forward and stumbled. Curse this sprained ankle. She could hear them gaining on her. She looked left. She looked right. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing! There was nothing but mist!

She could hear them calling out to each other, closing in on her. She didn't even have any water left; there was no way that she could fight back. She heard the footsteps to the right of her. She heard the footsteps to the left of her. She heard them stop behind her. She saw them stop in front of her. She was surrounded. She was cornered. She was dead. She lowered her head and waited for the inevitable.

"KATARRA!"

A voice split through the air above, and suddenly, the Water Tribe girl's heart was bursting with hope where it had just a second before been in the depths of despair.

"AANG," Katarra yelled at the top of her lungs, desperation evident in her voice. The avatar dropped down from the sky and landed on the ground like a bolt of lightning. Whirling his staff above his head, the super centennial airbender created a vortex which sent the monsters toppling over and uprooted some of the smaller trees in the surrounding forest.

The eyeless freaks quickly regained their feet, angered that something had intruded upon their meal. Aang gripped his staff tightly, his eyes narrowed into slits. There was no way that he was letting any of these things get anywhere near Katarra while he was still alive.

Suddenly Katarra saw something that she hadn't seen for a good while; '_Sunlight_.'

It was streaming down from where Aang had descended from the sky piercing the unnatural darkness caused by the mists. The mist itself for that matter was starting to get less and less dense. With each passing second, Aang and Katarra could see more and more of their surroundings.

"Aang, something's happening to the creatures!"

Sure enough, the creatures were fading away along with the mists. Eventually, the whole area was free of the obscuring substance, leaving two very confused and slightly frightened benders in its aftermath. Katarra wrapped Aang in a tight embrace; she did not speak any words of thanks. Her actions spoke loud enough. Aang could feel all of the blood in his body rushing down to his nether regions; man she smelled nice.

Releasing her hold on the avatar and taking a minute to regain her composure, Katarra looked at the young airbender and asked, "So what was all that?"

Aang stopped swooning immediately after she asked that question. That was a very good question; what exactly was all of that anyway. The young avatar shrugged.

"Beats me. I found you because I sensed a disturbance in this mountain's aura and something told me to come and investigate. I can definitely say that it's somehow Spirit World related, but besides that, I'm not really sure what to tell you."

Putting a hand to her jaw, Katarra made a very Sokka-ish gesture as she tried to apply her own brain power to the subject.

"Do you think that it's some kind of nature spirit that's lashing out," Katarra asked with a perplexed look on her dirty face.

Aang simply shook his head in response. "I suppose that that's possible, but I don't really think that's the case this time. This just felt different… I don't know, dirtier somehow. I really don't get the feeling that this is an earth spirit that's doing all this."

Katarra crossed her arms over her chest and looked the younger boy dead in the eyes. "What do you want to do," she asked. The answer to that one was simple. He wanted to go to Ba Sing Se; he wanted to find Appa. But he couldn't just leave these mountains, not after what he had just witnessed. A spirit malevolent enough to call forth creatures as horrible as those things that they had fought was just not something that the avatar could walk away from. Innocent people could be hurt.

"Let's head back to camp and gather up our things," Aang replied. "Something weird's going on in these mountains; I have to find out what."


	6. Chapter 6

_Oh Yes Baby! Slimjames is back with a vengeance! Another big thank you to all of my reviewers. You guys really motivate me to do my best when I'm writing this story. Anyway, here's chapter six. I hope it lives up to whatever expectations you might have. _

Chapter 6

"While I wasn't blessed with freaky spirit medium powers, my Sokka sense is telling me that something weird is definitely going on in this place."

Sokka walked along ahead of an unusually pallid Aang- who was currently trying to calm an extremely agitated Momo- a very shifty Katara, and a Toph who looked as disinterested in the goings on of the visible world as she usually did. Following Aang and Katara's battle with the strange creatures from the mist, the group had immediately set out to find the source of the spiritual disturbance. After a day and a half of travel, Aang had led them all to this town.

This seemingly deserted, creepy, constantly covered in dark clouds, _meatless_ town. Sokka was disturbed on so many levels. The thing was, there were people in this town; Toph had felt them moving around in the surrounding buildings and down distant back alleys. Every time that someone from their group tried to make contact with one of the locals, the person would just run away.

Sokka, Katara and Aang had tried banging on doors, shouting in the street; anything just to get somebody to come out of their homes and talk to them, explain just what was going on around these parts.

After once again knocking on a door, only to be greeted by silence, Sokka threw his hands above his head, frustration evident on his face.

"This is getting us nowhere fast! How are we supposed to figure out what's going on if we can't even get a little bit of information?"

Toph crossed her arms and let out an annoyed huff as Momo came to rest on her shoulder.

"What's there to find out," she asked. "We already know that some Spirit World weirdness is responsible for what happened in the woods. It's a pretty good guess that it's also the cause of what's happening in this town. Why can't Aang just do whatever it is he does and be done with it? It's not like we have more important things to do."

Sokka, jaws agape and ready to retort, was unexpectedly cut off by the avatar.

"It's not that simple Toph," Aang stated. "I have no idea what it is I'm dealing with here. I've never felt anything like what I'm feeling right now. The aura in this place is just… soiled. It feels like something is rotting inside of me; it would be way too dangerous to try anything until we all know what we're dealing with."

The avatar took a deep breath, his body shuddered as a chill ran up his spine. Fear? Shaking the feeling off, Aang continued.

"Also, the spirit is manifesting itself into violent physical forms. A lot of people could get hurt. Getting to Ba Sing Se is important, but I have to fix what's going on here first."

Toph sighed and rolled her eyes, but eventually nodded in understanding. Aang was right; where there were people that needed help, they couldn't just abandon them. Still, there was nothing that said she wasn't allowed speed things up a little bit.

The blind girl lifted the flying lemur off of her shoulder, placing the white creature on the ground. Walking a small distance away from the group, the earthbending master dropping into a crane stance; the traditional earthbending forms weren't usually her style, but for what she was planning, she would need to be a bit more gentle than usual. Stomping one of her feet on the ground, the blind girl reached out through the earth, "seeing" all that surrounded her.

Nothing good; she stomped her foot again. Still nothing; she stomped her foot again. Bingo! That would do nicely!

The rest of the gang exchanged puzzled looks at the strange sight. Sokka, never content to leave well enough alone when it came to the earthbending girl, started to walk the short distance to where Toph was locked in her stance.

"Toph, what're you-waaahhh!"

The Earth Kingdom girl made a quick lunge forward, crouched, and turned her small body, sweeping her hands in the direction of a darkened alley. The Water Tribe boy was treated, for the second time in as many days, to the sensation of having his feet taken out from under him and landing head first on the hard ground. This time, he was treated to the new novelty of landing face to face with Momo, who was currently in the process of demolishing an especially fat, especially juicy grub worm. A bit of juice squirted in his face.

Sokka's yelp of surprise was almost immediately drowned out by a yell of astonishment and fear.

The gang was treated to the uncommon sight of a fully grown man being propelled from his hiding spot in the darkness of the alley. Flying feet first, man landed roughly in the street on his buttocks, letting out an audible wheeze of pain, along with an impressive string of obscenities.

"Toph!"

Katara was less than amused at the younger girl. You weren't supposed to just go around tossing innocent people about like sacks of corn meal. The blind earthbender just looked pleased with herself.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Whine, whine, complain, whine. Look we've got a source now! Are we gonna waste time being angry at me, or are we gonna solve this mystery?"

It was clear by the look on Katara's face that she wanted to argue some more. Sokka, on the other hand, was all too eager to commence with the interrogation of the local man. Putting on his best smiling face, the Water Tribe warrior stood over their pudgy new friend who was still sitting on the ground and muttering curses between bouts of rubbing his rear end.

"Hey there sir. How are you," Sokka asked while flashing his patented '_trust-me-I'm-a-good-guy'_ smile. The man on the ground looked at the four strange people who made up the avatar party, a look of unabashed horror on his face. The man latched on to Sokka's right ankle and immediately began bawling his eyes out.

"Oh please, pleaaasse don't hurt me! Don't hurt me; I'm sorry!"

Three pairs of eyes looked down at the man in a mixture of pity and bewilderment; Toph's cheeks were slightly red with embarrassment. She hadn't meant to scare the guy _that_ much.

"Okay! Okay! Take it easy," Sokka exclaimed while roughly pulling his leg free from the local man's grip. The Water Tribe warrior turned his gaze to Katara and shot what she recognized was his '_please for the love of the Moon take over because I'm in way over my head'_ look.

Kneeling down in front of the man-who had by this time completely disintegrated into a crying, blubbering mess- the waterbender spoke in the most soothing tones she could manage.

"Sir," she began, "Sir, listen to me. We aren't going to hurt you. In fact, we're here to help solve whatever it is that's going on around here. Do you see that kid standing behind me?"

Katara turned and motioned with her head; the man's eyes followed to action and came to rest upon a boy who had an arrow tattooed on his head.

"That's the avatar and we-" the Water Tribe girl suddenly found herself cut off as the pudgy man suddenly interjected.

"Wait a second, that's the avatar," the local man asked. The barely contained excitement in his voice was clearly audible. Katara, surprised at the man's sudden change in attitude, could only nod dumbly in confirmation; yes that was the avatar.

"Well this is perfect! To think that the avatar himself would come here at a time like this; all of us around here were at the end our rope. But with the avatar here, things should be back to normal in no time."

Aang rubbed the back of his bald head sheepishly.

"Um… yeah… about that. We all came here because I sensed that something was wrong in the spiritual balance in these mountains. The bad feeling has only gotten worse since we came to this valley; could you tell us about what's been happening around here?"

It was the local man's turn to look sheepish. "I'm sorry, but I won't be able to tell you all that much."

"Don't worry," Sokka replied. "Not having much to go on is kind of a normal thing for us."

The local man sighed and climbed to his feet. "Well, I suppose I should start by introducing myself. My name is Coshal. I live on the next block with my wife and my children, pleased to meet all of you."

Introductions were given all around before Sokka got them back on to the topic at hand.

"The disturbances started happening about a week and a half ago," Coshal spoke in hushed tones, as if he was afraid of being overheard.

"Out of nowhere, an eerie mist will coat an entire neighborhood. You can see shapes moving in the darkness, and you can hear the screams from the people inside, but to venture into those mists would be suicide. All that the people caught inside can do is lock themselves into their homes and wait it out. Eventually, the mist leaves, and when it finally does lift, you get to see the aftermath."

Coshal shuddered. "Everything's destroyed. Doors knocked in, stalled pulverized, people torn limb from limb! So far, eleven people have been killed."

Sokka put his hand under his chin and went deep into thought. Katara placed her hands over her mouth in horror. Toph began shuffling her feet, nervously trying to sense if anything was trying to sneak up on them. Aang furrowed his brow and spoke.

"You said that this started about a week and a half ago? Why's all of this happening right now? Is there anything you can think of, anything at all, that could have caused the spirits to go wild like this?"

Coshal furrowed his dark brow in thought. "Well," he began slowly. "I had heard a rumor going around that an incident of some kind had happened at the temple a while ago; a break in or something like that."

The local man began nodding his head slowly, more to himself than to his audience.

"Yeah; now that I think about it, the people at the temple have been acting kind of strange lately."

Toph quirked her head in interest. "Strange how," she asked.

"Well, for the past two weeks, they've closed off a lot of different sections inside the temple. The temple of Sowjanya has always been pretty much open to anyone who wishes to come inside; for them to suddenly shut whole area's down is kind of unusual."

"Is there anything else," Katara asked.

"Yes; the temple novices! You used to see them out and about in the town all the time doing charity work and asking for alms, but now they stay cloistered up inside of temple all day and all night."

Sokka took his hand from under his chin as he finished analyzing all of the information the group had just taken in. It was clear to him that this temple of Sowjanya place was the epicenter of all of the Spirit World craziness that was going on. By the looks on the faces of his teammates, they all thought the same thing as well.

"So, just where is this temple anyway," Sokka asked. This conversation had whetted his curiosity and he was itching to get some real answers to his questions.

The local man looked at them strangely for a second before breaking into a meek smile.

"Oh yeah; I forgot for a second that you kids are foreigners. The temple complex is that way," Coshal stated, pointing east. "You can't see it from here due to the hills, but you won't be able to miss it once you see it."

* * *

Katara had to admit that Coshal had not been exaggerating when he had said that one could not miss the temple of Sowjanya; you would have to be blind not to notice it. She quickly looked over at Toph; Katara's face reddened with embarrassment.

Though Coshal had said that sections of the temple had been blocked off for two weeks, having the avatar with them proved to be the best key that they could ever hope for; all of the locked doors and blocked passageways were eagerly flung open.

They were guided by one of the temple novices to the personal chambers of the mother superior, an ancient woman named Neva. Neva's chamber was not grandiose in any sense of the term; it was small and crammed with various trinkets. Simple woolen rugs covered the stone floor and the whole room smelled of the incense that was burning in the dozens of lamps which lined the walls and the ceiling. With a small, wizened hand the mother superior bade her young visitors to sit upon the simple pillows that were arrayed on the floor in front of the small dais that she was seated on.

Placing both of her palms together in front of her face, the old women bowed her head and spoke.

"Truly, it is a blessing that the avatar has come to this forsaken place in this time of crisis. I thank you from the bottom of my old heart."

Aang, more than a little bit embarrassed by the praise, chuckled uneasily before replying.

"There's really no need to thank me since I haven't actually done anything yet. The important thing to focus on right now is why these spirits are so angry."

The old woman sighed deeply, her small body shaking. "There are many questions; you can ask me whatever you wish but the answers that I can give you are few."

"Okay," Sokka began. "Can you tell us when, exactly, these strange events started to occur?"

The mother superior closed her eyes. "They began twenty-two days ago."

The four young people shared similar shocked expressions. Twenty-two days?!

"Wait a minute," Toph interjected harshly, "the guy we met once we came here said that these things had only been out attacking people for about a week and a half!"

The mother superior's eyes remained closed.

"What that man said was true; however it was not the whole truth. It is true that the spirit creatures have plagued the town night after night for ten days. What no one outside of the temple knows is that attacks have been occurring within the walls for much longer."

Aang felt the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach get even worse. He felt Momo tense against his neck.

'_Not good, this is not good._'

"That's so horrible," Katara whispered to no one in particular. Twenty-two days! She had fought those things herself; she knew just how vicious they were. She was a master waterbender and she had nearly been killed; regular people wouldn't have stood a chance. It was…

'_Wait a sec…_'

The young waterbender felt her sadness boiling over into anger. They had known for twenty-two days, twenty-two days and they hadn't told anyone about what was going on? They didn't try to get help at all?

"If this has been going on for so long, why have you been keeping it a secret from the townspeople," the Water Tribe girl exclaimed angrily. "You could have warned them! They could have prepared in some way!"

Katara's voice was rising with every new word, her fury building along with the volume of her voice. How could these people keep this kind of secret! Eleven people had died in the town already!

Sokka looked over at his sister; if looks could kill then the ones that Katara was shooting at the mother superior would have left the old woman suffering long into the afterlife. Really, she personalized these things way too much; he was shocked and angry at the deception as well, but that did not change the fact that the people at this temple were the victims in this situation. One thing you do not do is start getting pissed off at the people you are trying to help.

"How many people from the temple have been killed?"

Toph. Asking the question nobody else wanted to ask, once again. Though her face remained composed, the old woman's hands began to shake noticeably. The already leaden atmosphere in the small room suddenly got much darker.

"So far, there have been twenty-seven deaths and many more have been injured. The wounded are being cared for in the temple infirmary."

Sokka, while horrified at the revelation that even a place as holy as this temple was not safe from the wrath of the spirit creatures, at the same time felt a slight sense of gratification. His suspicions had been right; the temple was at the center of this entire mystery. If they could figure out what had set things in motion, then they would be one step away from cracking this case. He just prayed that they could do it before anyone else was hurt.

"What about countermeasures," the Water Tribe youth asked. "Have any of the people here at the temple tried to exorcise these spirits?"

At this question the mother superior slowly cracked her eyes open; her gaze however met no one's eyes. Right at that moment, the old woman looked very uncomfortable.

"The high priests of Sowjanya have been attempting to pacify the spirits. There have, however, been…"

The mother superior's voice simply trailed off; in its wake it left four pairs of furrowed eyebrows. Trailing off mid-sentence was never a good sign.

"What is it," Aang asked softly, his grey eyes boring into the heavily lidded brown pair owned by the old woman. The mother superior sighed, rubbing her eyelids with a wrinkled hand. She looked exhausted. She looked as if she was supporting the weight of this world and the next on her frail shoulders. She looked like she was just about ready to give up. Spirits forgive her, but she just wanted to pass this burden on to someone else.

"I am afraid avatar that I cannot properly express to you what has happened to the priests who have journeyed into the Spirit World; it would be best if you saw for yourself."

* * *

The mother superior had summoned one of the young temple novices to act as the avatar group's guide to the innermost chambers of the temple of Sowjanya. They had been walking for several minutes through the dark corridors of the main building. Due to the overcast skies outside the building, almost no sunlight found its way into the hallway to light their path. The overall atmosphere spoke of pain and death.

Katara shivered and tried to force herself from thinking such morbid thoughts. A fatalistic outlook on life was not her style; still, it was very hard to be optimistic about anything in this situation. Plus there was that nagging sensation in the back of her mind that told her that things were likely to get worse before they got any better.

Deciding that conversation would be the solution to keeping her mind off the subject of being eaten alive by eyeless freak creatures, the Water Tribe girl spoke to their guide.

"Priya," at the sound of her name, the girl in question squeaked and jumped. Katara quickly apologized for startling the temple novice, receiving a timid "no problem" in return. The waterbender assumed that it was natural for the people in the temple to be burdened with a high degree of tension; they were, after all, under siege by paranormal enemies. This girl Priya, however, seemed ready to jump out of her skin at the least provocation.

Katara tried again.

"Priya," she asked softly, "how much farther until we reach the inner chambers?"

The temple novice lifted her eyes from their position on the floor to look back hesitantly at the group which was following her.

"Actually, it's just around this next corner," the novice replied in a voice no louder than the peep of a bull-mouse.

The four young people rounded a corner before coming to rest approximately ten feet in front of a lavishly decorated set of double doors whose height extended all the way into the shadowy rafters. Four Indu men dressed in yellow robes and sporting red turbans lined the walls, two on each side. Priya approached one of the men and bowed down on one knee, eyes averted to the floor. The man, who remained standing, returned the bow with a small inclination of his own head.

The young temple novice stood up and addressed the avatar party.

"Beyond these doors lies the inner sanctum of the temple of Sowjanya. The avatar will be able to talk to the high priests within."

'_No time like the present_,' Toph thought to herself. The blind earthbender took several aggressive steps forward before she ran into something very solid.

"Ouch," the blind bender snapped to no one and everyone in particular. As she cradled her injured nose, Toph reached out with her earthbending to find out what, or rather who, she had just walked into. The outline that her brain was receiving from the vibrations in the earth showed a very large person standing in her path.

"Do you mind buddy," Toph growled menacingly.

The Indu man glowered down at the top of the blind girl's head.

"Women are not allowed to enter into the inner sanctum. The avatar and the warrior may enter, but the females will not be allowed to go any further."

Sokka swore that had someone dropped a pin, they would have all been able to hear it. Even Momo, perched on his master's shoulders, had gone quiet; that told the young avatar all he needed to know. There was danger in the air. He looked at Katara and Toph; they both looked as if they wanted to do something very unpleasant to the four men who watched over the door. He looked over and saw that Aang also looked indignant over the idea that his friends would be excluded from his meeting with the high priests.

"No," the avatar stated firmly. "Katara and Toph have just as much right to go in there as me and Sokka; either we all go in or-"

"Or nothing," Sokka interjected, butting in with his usual lack of subtlety. "There's no problem; Aang will go with you to meet the head priest guys, right Aang?"

Sokka exchanged a significant glance at the airbender, who just looked confused; the looks on Toph and his sister's faces made his balls want to crawl up inside of stomach. Honestly, did nobody in this group besides him recognize that there was an appropriate time and a place to argue; this was neither the time nor the place. Sokka had lost nearly all of his sexist principles since he had started on this journey with the avatar; he was honestly offended at the idea that his sister and friend would not be allowed into anywhere just because they were girls.

Despite his feelings, the Water Tribe youth was sure that he could predict what would happen if he let this situation get any bigger. Sokka knew his sister, and he felt that he knew Toph pretty well too; if he let the two of them get started, they all could potentially get kicked out of the temple before Aang even had a chance to talk to the priests.

'_Once again, feminism comes to bite me in the ass.' _

"Aang, go in to meet the priests by yourself, I actually want Katara and Toph to help me with something."

Aang still looked like he wanted to protest, that was, until, he saw the absolutely pathetic, doe eyed, slightly manic pleading face that Sokka was wearing. Though still upset at the Indu men's attitudes, Aang could see that Sokka was seriously trying to defuse the situation before it could escalate. The young airbender sighed.

"Okay, I'll go meet them alone," he said quietly.

As both Katara and Toph rounded on him, Aang felt like he had potentially made the biggest and, potentially, last mistake of his life. His keen animal instincts sensing the imminent danger, Momo quickly abandoned his master, leaping from the airbender's shoulders to come to rest on the waterbender's.

'_Traitor_,' Aang thought sullenly. At that moment, he really, really disliked Sokka for putting him on the spot like this.

Seeing that his fellow male was about to get walloped, Sokka decided to come to the rescue. Grabbing hold of Katara and Toph's arms, he quickly turned them in the opposite direction of the door and began pulling them up the hallway before either one could protest. The Water Tribe warrior felt proud of himself for escaping that situation so effectively. He _was_ a genius after all.

"You do realize that you're going to pay for this, right?"

Toph. Sokka's back started to sweat.

"He's my brother; I get first dibs."

Katara. Sokka's back started to sweat even more. Suddenly, he didn't feel like such a genius after all. Swallowing the nervousness in his voice, Sokka replied.

"Yeah, well, it was better than getting into an argument about it. It's their tradition and we've got to respect it while we're here; it wouldn't look good for you two to overreact."

"It's a stupid, exclusionary tradition," Katara huffed indignantly, not pacified in the slightest.

Toph snorted huffily. "This whole temple wouldn't be able to handle my _overreaction_."

Sokka breathed a little easier; they were still pissed, but at least they weren't going to start breaking things. Sokka spoke again.

"If it makes you feel any better, think about it this way; Aang will probably just be doing some freaky deaky Spirit World related stuff. How much good could we really have done in there anyway?"

The older boy could tell by the sour looks on the faces of the girls that he had managed to score a point. As obstinate as Katara and Toph could be at times, not even they could successfully make the argument that their presence would have made a difference in Aang's confrontation with the spirit creatures.

Taking the girls' aggravated silence as his cue, Sokka continued.

"Besides, what I said earlier wasn't a lie; there really is something that I want the two of you to help me with."

The three companions stopped in their tracks. Katara quirked a curious eyebrow at her brother as, clearly wondering what scheme he had rattling around inside of his head. Sokka quickly explained what it was he had in mind. Toph, who had for the entire conversation been stroking one of Momo's ears, looked much happier than she had been since they had arrived in this town. Her face was alight at the prospect of actually doing something rather than just walking around and talking.

Katara simply shrugged and stated that it was "better than doing nothing." Sokka grinned; now that that was settled, there was just one little detail to take care of.

"Priya," the Water Tribe warrior said, looking at the temple novice. Their guide, who had till now stood forgotten against one of the hallway's walls.

"Y-Yes," the startled novice stuttered.

"Do you know if there's anyplace in this temple where I can find a good hat?"

Katara groaned.

* * *

Step. Step. Step. Step. With each step down that empty corridor, the young avatar felt a little bit more uneasy.

'_Step_,'

With each step, Aang gripped his staff a little bit tighter.

'Step,'

With each step, Aang could feel his stomach churn a little bit more. He was alone in this. The presence of his tall, nameless escorts walking on either side of him did not make him feel any less alone. He could feel it; he was headed for trouble and he could feel it.

'_No; I have to be strong. I'm the avatar. I am the avatar!' _

At the end of the darkened hallway, there was another set of double doors. His four escorts stepped forward to open the doors for him. Aang's grip on his staff tightened even further. Whatever he told himself, he knew that it did not change the fact that he was nervous. No… scratch that. He wasn't just nervous, he was scared senseless by what he was going to find behind that last door.

The creak of the ancient doors resonated in the hallway, echoing off of the wall and rattling the young airbender to the core. Aang shivered visibly; avatar or not, he was still unsettled. The doors opened all the way; Aang suddenly felt like he was going to throw up.

When those doors had opened, a rush of wind blew out. Immediately, the airbender's nostrils were filled with the stench of death. The foul scent clogged his nostrils and got stuck in the back of his throat; he swore that he could taste the flesh of the slain on his tongue. He felt his knees buckle. Using his staff for support, Aang managed to keep his feet.

"Wh…w-w-what ha-happened here," the shaken avatar managed to ask with some difficulty. Seated on mats circling a large incense burner were the corpses of four men; upon closer inspection, the young avatar realized that they weren't regular dead bodies. They were mummies.

"These are the bodies of our masters, the four high priests of Sowjanya," one of his escorts told him. Aang noticed that the man seemed to be having trouble speaking.

The avatar himself struggled to form words; the spiritual atmosphere in the room was just too oppressive. The level of spiritual corruption in this room was ten times worse than what he had been sensing in the town or in the temple.

"When did they… how did they…" the questions, half asked, flew from Aang's mouth.

One of his escorts, a different one than before, spoke.

"After the attacks on members of the temple had originally begun, the priest tried to exorcise the spirits causing the destruction themselves. What you see before you is the results of their actions. They were unprepared for what they saw and gradually, one by one, they were overcome."

The third escort spoke next.

"As the retainers of the high priests, it was our duty to see that no harm befell them. It is our disgrace that this has happened. No one besides the five people standing in this room and the mother superior knows the truth about what has happened and of the fate of the priests."

The final escort spoke.

"Please allow us to assist you in your journey to the Spirit World. Though we do not have as much experience and our masters, we feel that we would be able to provide you with some help."

Aang could feel his own bile rising in his throat. He fought it down. He was more scared right now than he had ever been in his life, but with that fear came something else; resolve. This spirit had sucked the 

life essence right out of these men and left them as dried husks. No matter how scared he was for himself, he was determined that he would stop this menace before any more people died.

Without speaking a word, Aang seated himself on an empty spot on the floor. The four Indu men seated themselves around the avatar. Locking his eyes shut, the bridge between the physical and the spiritual world allowed his consciousness to drift… drift… drift…………………………………………………………………….

* * *

_Aang opened his eyes to a new world; the Spirit World. He had managed to cross over without incident. So far so good. _

"_Where the heck am I," the airbender asked aloud. As Aang turned his head left and right, up and down, he quickly became aware that he had absolutely no idea where in the Spirit World he was. He had expected to land in the same swamp that he had fallen into the last time he had come to the Spirit World; where he had landed, however, was definitely not a swamp. _

_Though a thick haze hung over the landscape, Aang could tell that he was in what appeared to be a forest of some kind, though it was unlike any forest the young airbender had ever seen. The trees were massive in size and were spaced widely apart. The mighty plants were gnarled and their branches twisted at impossible angles. Their roots reached up out of the ground, as if the trees had, at some time in the past, attempted to remove themselves from the earth and go elsewhere. As Aang walked past one of the trees, he cringed and leaped back several feet. _

_There! Right there in the bark! Staring at him was a human face; silently screaming, twisted in unheard pain and fury. All of the bark on the tree was covered with similar impressions; men, women children. He saw them all. _

_So engrossed was the young man in the gigantic monument to human suffering that he was almost too late to avoid the gigantic claw that was making a swipe at his head. Aang managed to avoid the attack, barely, by propelling himself into the air on a blast of wind. He landed softly on the ground a good distance away from his attacker. The avatar could only stare wide eyed in horrified fascination. _

"_You cannot be serious," the airbender muttered to himself in terrified disbelief._

_It was one of the spirit creatures he had fought before. Only bigger. Much bigger. With eyes. And one… no wait, make that two extra heads. Before Aang could even properly process what he was seeing with his own eyes, the freakish monstrosity closed the distance between them. _

_The avatar leaped backwards in shock. Something that big had no right being that fast! Seeing no better options, the young airbender quickly decided that running away would be the smart decision to make. Aang only made it a few steps, however, before he felt something grab hold of his left ankle. Falling face forward, the teen looked down to see what it was that he had tripped over and could only stare in shock; a tree root that bore a suspicious resemblance to a human hand, was keeping a firm hold on his ankle. _

"_Really! Even the plant's here are trying to kill me!?"_

_The monster bore down on him, it's various jowls awash with saliva. Aang shouted; if he had known any good curse words he would have been screaming them at the top of his lungs. Out of all of the ways that he had thought that he would die, being eaten by a giant spirit monster had never occurred to him. _

_Aang looked up in time to see the monster's head suddenly being engulfed in blue flames. _

'Wait a minute, blue flames? Who…_' _

_The airbender sat up to watch as the monster writhed on the ground, thrashing in its death throes. The fire was still burning; the heat was the most intense he had ever felt in his life. Who in the two worlds had the power to do something like that?_

"_Wow, it's not every day that you get to see the back of your own head," a gruff, but still recognizably female voice said._

_Aang's head whipped around to see who it was that was speaking to him. He found himself face to face with a strangely dressed, brown skinned woman with a painted face. She was looking at him with a slightly exasperated expression on her face. Aang wasn't sure why, but she looked oddly familiar to him._

"_Thanks for saving me," the airbender asked. "But who are you?"_

_The mysterious woman cracked a crooked smile. _

"_You should already know kid," she said. "I'm the avatar." _


	7. Chapter 7

_Finally! Exams, Schoolwork, Projects, Waking up to go to class, It's All Over. YES! Real Life sucks when it gets in the way of your ability to write whenever you want too. Anyway, this chapter was probably the hardest one for me to write, but I think that it came out alright in the end. Enjoy!!_

_Before I Forget_: _I know I haven't put one of these up for a while but, I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender or anything associatied with that franchise_

Chapter 7

Detective work is serious business; serious, _serious_ business! Being a detective required a painstaking attention to detail, keen analysis of the crime scene, unwavering determination, and a good deal of footwork. But the most important thing that a detective needed? One word; props.

"Sokka… what in the world are you wearing?"

Over the years Katara had had many reasons to doubt her older brother's sanity; the mismatched ensemble that the Water Tribe warrior was currently sporting was yet another check under her 'my-brother-is-a-raging-lunatic' mental column.

"This, dear sister of mine, is the formal regalia of a master of the deductive arts. Feel free to admire the details."

Admiration was the very last emotion that the waterbender was feeling at the moment.

Through some miracle, in the space of twenty minutes Sokka had managed to scrounge up a maroon turban, a white honey-yellow checkered neckerchief, and a cream colored robe which he had wrapped around his shoulders so that it covered mush of his front side. On his face sat a pair of lens less, gold rimmed spectacles and from his mouth dangled the most obnoxiously large pipe that Katara had ever laid eyes upon.

She honestly did not know whether to laugh out loud at the ridiculous figure her brother cut or hang her head in shame for being related to someone who took such pride in offending good taste.

"That bad," Toph asked to the still gaping water tribe girl.

"Just be thankful that you're blind," Katara deadpanned.

The Water Tribe warrior was fairly annoyed that neither one of the girls bothered to keep their voices down; if they were going to ridicule him they could at least have the decency to try and make sure he didn't hear it. Still, he supposed that he couldn't fault them for their snarky attitudes. Being a man of the world-in his own mind at least- Sokka understood the importance of having the correct costume. It wasn't enough just to _act_ the part, you had to _look_ the part.

Drawing his lanky frame up to his full height, the Water Tribe warrior turned officiously towards Priya, who was staring holes through her toes.

"Priya, it's time that you take us to the scene of the crime," Sokka announced in his best detective's voice.

"W-Wh-what," the skittish temple novice sputtered in reply. The Indu girl, however, was not the only person present who was surprised by the "master detective's" exclamation.

"What are you talking about Snoozles? The scene of what crime," Toph asked. "This is all supposed to be about Spirit World type stuff."

Katara nodded her head in agreement with the younger girl.

"Yeah Sokka; what are you trying to get at? You asked us to help you with something, but so far all we've done is watch you play dress-up."

Sokka beamed with the pride of a person who knows something that nobody else has been able to figure out.

"You remember that conversation that with Coshal earlier on today, in the market?"

Sokka waited until the two benders nodded in confirmation that, yes, they did recall speaking with the Indu man.

"Well, in the midst of that conversation he said something that caught my attention. He had said that he had heard a rumor about an incident that happened here at the temple a couple of weeks ago."

Toph raised her hand to catch the Water Tribe warrior's attention before he got too into patting himself on the back.

"Couldn't those rumors just have been about the spirit creatures," Toph asked. "I mean, they've been running around inside the temple for longer than they've been attacking the town."

Utterly unfazed by the blind earthbender's attack on his logic, Sokka directed a self-confident smirk in her direction, conveniently disregarding the fact that Toph was unable to see it.

"I considered that, but as I thought about it on the walk to the inner sanctum there were three very important things that I found were wrong with that idea."

Holding up his left hand, Sokka began to tick off his points on his fingers.

"First of all; everyone in this complex has been very tight-lipped regarding leaking information about the spirit creatures to the outside world. From what I've seen, the people here don't seem to be too inclined to run off at the mouth about things. I seriously doubt that the truth of what has been going on inside these walls would be leaked by any of the people living here.

Sokka held up a second finger.

"Point number two; when he was talking about the rumor, Coshal didn't say a thing about spirit creatures or the Spirit World or anything spirit related happening in the temple. He said that he had heard that there was a rumor that the temple had been burglarized."

"Okay, so what's the third thing," Katara asked with more than a small degree of impatience. Her brother could and would talk a piece of information to death if you let him get going.

Pouting at the mild rudeness of his younger sister, Sokka quickly moved on to his last point. He counted off on his third finger.

"Lastly and most importantly of all, there is point number three; why would the spirit creature choose now of all times to get all restless?"

Katara raised an eyebrow at her brother as he chewed officiously on the end of his pipe.

"Spirits come into our world to attack humans when their domains on this plane have been tampered with or despoiled by humans," Katara stated, still looking at her brother quizzically.

"But you already know that; you were taken by that spirit Hei Bai while we were in Senlin's forest."

"Wait a sec," Toph interjected excitedly, "Snoozles was abducted by a forest spirit? How come you never told me about that! That's hilarious!"

Involuntarily, a chill ran the length of Sokka's body. He'd been in the Spirit World for less than a day, but it was easily one of the single most disturbing experiences that he had ever experienced- and he had once accidentally walked in on his Gran Gran while she was changing.

"We never talk about it because it's not a subject that is meant to be talked about nowcanwepleasegetbacktothesubject!"

Toph did what could be best described as a quarter-hearted job restraining her own hilarity at Water Tribe warrior's loss of composure. Oh, this was going to be good prank ammunition later on. Putting thoughts of torturing Sokka aside, the blind earthbender relented and allowed the older boy to continue.

"Now as I was saying; Katara's right. Spirits don't do anything to humans unless they're provoked first. With this knowledge, coupled with the rumor that there was a break in at the temple it's simple deduction that this rumored robbery and appearance of the spirit creatures are somehow connected."

Katara and Toph furrowed their brows in near identical expressions of thought. They had to admit that, the way Sokka had broken it down, there did seem to be some sort of connection. Still…

"This is kind of stretch, don't you think," Katara asked.

"Yeah, it is," Sokka stated, shrugging off the question, "but it's still something that we can investigate. Who know's, we might uncover something that could help Aang."

"Well, I'm sold," Toph said while folding her arms behind her head. They might be wasting their time, but it was better than just sitting around doing nothing.

With Toph's agreement, Katara gave her support to the idea as well- not that she was ever really against the idea of investigating in the first place.

"Cool! Now that we've got that settled; to the scene of the crime!"

* * *

"_You're the avatar?"_

"_Given the circumstances, it would be more accurate to say that I'm _an_ avatar, not _the_ avatar."_

_Aang stood mouth agape and staring at the strange woman who had suddenly appeared and saved him from being devoured by a giant spirit creature. The woman-an avatar- stood with her arms crossed and looking down upon the young airbender with a stern look on her face. Aang got the distinct feeling that he was being sized up._

_The mysterious female avatar that had saved him was unlike anyone whom the young airbender had ever seen. The elder avatar was dressed in clothing which, to the younger version, was quite revealing. The woman's breasts were bound and held together by a weathered strip of animal hide. Her stomach was left bare, exposing her toned abdomen. A loincloth, done up with ties at the side, kept her lower half concealed. Leggings made from the fur so some type of spotted animal covered the lower part of her legs and the tops of her bare feet._

_The elder avatar's arms were adorned with numerous golden bracelets. Hanging from her neck was a double looped necklace that was decorated with polished volcanic stones. Her cheeks, eyes, and forehead were painted black and highlighted with red. Her hair fell to just above the point where her neck met her shoulders. A headdress bedecked with brilliant red and green feathers sat atop her head. _

_The current avatar felt a familiar warming sensation in his cheeks; he suddenly seemed to find something very interesting on his shoes. _

"_Um…… wh-wha…. Um… that is……. Ugh…" _

_Aang was sputtering like an idiot. He knew that he was sputtering like an idiot; it was too hard to stop himself. The past avatar's face changed from a look of examination to one of puzzlement at her descendant's behavior. _

"_What's wrong with you," she asked in genuine confusion._

"_Well… it's just that…"_

_He could tell by the look on her face that the elder avatar was starting to become agitated at his behavior. The airbender had no idea why he was hesitating; swallowing the lump in his throat, the young avatar gathered up all of his courage and asked the question._

"_Where are the rest of your clothes?"_

_Of all of the… _

"_What are you talking about," the elder avatar replied in a surprised voice, while at the same time covering her chest self-consciously with one of her arms. _

_Aang quickly waved his arms in front of his body in a frantic attempt to placate his offended past persona. It didn't seem to help matters any as the woman looked like she was deciding whether or not to slap the young avatar for his poorly chosen words. _

"_No, no, no! Please don't get upset! It's just that that outfit you're wearing is just kind of… I dunno… revealing?"_

_Aang was sputtering like an idiot; again. He knew that he was sputtering like an idiot; again. It was too hard to stop himself; again. He was starting to feel very uncomfortable._

'I really should have just kept my mouth closed.'

_While the airbender was busy berating himself in his inner monologue, the past avatar seemed to have recovered from her initial astonishment and not wore an expression that looked to be somewhere between bemusement and exasperation._

"_This outfit that I'm wearing, I'll have you know, is the formal battle regalia for a Sun Warrior general," the female avatar stated, an obvious edge in his voice. _

"_Besides that, don't you think that it's a bit weird to be ogling the goodies of a past version of yourself? I understand that you're just starting to get into that age when you're starting to notice the opposite sex, but still."_

_By virtue of having Sokka and Toph as traveling companions, Aang considered himself an authority on sarcasm. The elder avatar's offering had all of the earthbender's sharpness but lacked the Water Tribe warrior's faint good humor. The younger avatar had the feeling that his comrades would be impressed. _

"_Okay… um… that's cool," Aang replied lamely. He scratched the back of his bald head while trying to think up of a good way to get off of the current subject._

"_Oh yeah," the airbender chirped excitedly, he grey eyes shining. "I still don't know what your name is."_

_The elder avatar snorted and recrossed her arms across her chest. _

"_I am the avatar Amaya."_

"_Good… good. I'm Aang, the current avatar." The young airbender flashed a bright smile at his predecessor. Avatar Amaya just stared back at him blankly._

"_I know," Amaya replied emotionlessly. Seeing the baffled expression on the younger avatar's face, Amaya deigned to explain herself._

"_Even though we've never met before in person, I was still able to recognize you. All of the incarnations of the avatar are one, remember? When you came here you were probably expecting the avatar who proceeded you to greet you, am I right?"_

_Aang nodded; he had been expecting to see avatar Roku once he arrived in the Spirit World. His predecessor had always been there in the past to act as his guide. The Sun Warrior avatar rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck, regaining the current avatar's attention._

"_Sorry to disappoint, but this time you're stuck with me. Now, come on."_

_With that very brief warning, Amaya turned on her heal and started moving into the mists. Aang followed her, his brain abuzz with questions. There were some questions that he still wanted answers too. _

"_The way you stopped that creature back there was amazing! I thought that you couldn't bend in the Spirit World."_

"_That's because you can't," came Amaya's gruff reply. "I wasn't bending, I was manipulating mana."_

"_You were doing what?" Aang had no idea what the Sun Warrior avatar was talking about. _

_At this point, the elder avatar stopped in her tracks and turned around to look down at the young airbender with a thoughtful look on her face._

"_You really don't know? Did you ever finish your spiritual training; being the avatar is about more than just learning all of the different bending styles you know. What have you been doing all this time?"_

_Aang scratched the back of his head in nervousness. "I kind of got frozen inside of an iceberg for a hundred years."_

_Amaya sighed heavily. It seemed like it was going to be up to her to school her descendent. _

"_You already know that it's impossible to bend here because there isn't any real air or earth or water or fire in the Spirit World. Everything in the Spirit World- from these soul trees, to the ground we're standing on, to you and me- is made of spiritual energy. My people called this spiritual energy mana, but I think that your people referred to this energy as qi."_

_The airbender nodded his head at his elder to indicate that he understood her so far; the Sun Warrior avatar proceeded. _

"_Every object in the physical world gives off some degree of qi energy; benders and people whose spirits are greatly tuned with the natural world, so they're able to manipulate their individual elements by instinctively matching their own body's energies with the qi energy coming from the nature and the elements. By concentrating their mental energies, a person is able to manipulate the ambient qi floating around here in the Spirit World."_

"_Wow," was all that Aang could say. He had never known that such a thing was possible. Was that how he had been able to conjure up that wind to escape the spirit creature; some kind of reflex action?_

"_So you were able to stop that spirit creature using spirit energy? Why'd it look like fire though?"_

_Avatar Amaya shrugged and rolled her eyes. "Well, I am a Sun Warrior; fire just feels the most natural to me." _

_The younger avatar was feeling much more comfortable now that he was finally being given some answers._

"_You told me to follow you before. Follow you where," Aang asked the elder Avatar. _

_Voice like cold steel, Amaya replied. "The two of us are going ghost hunting"_

* * *

Toph had decided that she was not cut out for detective work. Why was she not cut out for it? Because it was boring; it was boring enough to be physically painful. If she had been in a more magnanimous mood, the earthbender might have conceded that her being blind might have had something to do with her not enjoying the experience.

A big part of being a detective seemed to be putting your nose close to the ground and scraping around looking for stray hairs and footprints and other crap like that. Obviously, being sightless Toph could not join in on the investigation.

So what did she do with her time? She sat; she waited in a corner and fooled around with Momo while the Water Tribe siblings went ahead and did whatever the hell it was they were doing; occasionally she'd send a snarky quip at Sokka or Katara or that twitchy temple novice. Spirits how she hated sitting and doing nothing! This was worse than when her mother made her attend her afternoon tea ceremonies; at least there she had sweets to eat.

Toph was not the only person who was feeling aggravated by their situation. The three young companions had spent the last two days going over the several shires that had been burglarized by a mysterious intruder several weeks ago. So far, they had managed to find several missing idols as well as no signs of forced entry.

Sokka had tried to emphasize the importance of the fact that since the burglar had not had to force his way inside that had to mean that he must have had a key to let himself in; a definite indicator of an inside job in Sokka's mind.

While Katara agreed that the possibility that someone from the temple being complicit in the crime was interesting, in her mind nothing that they had been doing had been of any value. Their purpose in doing this was to find something to assist Aang; so far they had found no such thing.

"I'm really starting to get worried about Aang. It's been two days since he locked himself in that room with those priests and he hasn't been out since."

"You shouldn't worry so much. I mean, he's the avatar. They have to do these types of things all the time don't they?"

If there was one thing that Katara could say that she was thankful for, it was meeting Priya. She had initially been thrown off by the temple novice's skittish behavior, but after she had been able to hold a whole conversation with the girl she found that the two of them had many things in common.

The two teenage girls shared a bench in the grand hallway while Sokka continued his search of yet another shrine.

"I can't help but worry. I get that the avatar has to deal with things relating to the Spirit World, but…"

Katara absentmindedly toyed with one of her hair loopies while Priya looked upon her new friend sympathetically. Priya patted the waterbender on the shoulder.

"You've just got to keep believing that he'll be alright."

Katara smiled at the gesture of comfort from the other girl. "Thanks," she replied with genuine gratitude in her voice. The Water Tribe girl rose to her feet and stretched.

"Well, enough break time. I better get back in there before my brother smashes a priceless artifact into a thousand pieces."

Priya giggled, blissfully unaware that Katara was being one hundred percent serious.

"Care to help this investigation," Katara asked the temple novice. As soon as the question left her lips, Katara could feel the atmosphere between the two girls suddenly change. Priya quickly cast her eyes downwards, as if to avoid the eyes of her waterbender friend; Katara noticed that she was clutching the fabric of her robes extremely tightly.

"No," the girl said sharply, yet softly as well. Though she did not say another word after that, Katara could tell from her single utterance that no amount of persuasion on her part could sway the girl to help, nor would it get the girl to explain her sudden shift in demeanor.

It was, altogether, weird and more than a little bit unsettling.

"Oh… well, okay then. I'll see you later then," Katara replied. She turned and reentered the shrine.

* * *

Sokka was examining a row of smiling tiger-bear idols. This was the third time he had examined these same idols. Though from all outward appearances, the Water Tribe warrior looked composed and fully engrossed in his assessment of the idols, on the inside the boy was ready to crack.

Sokka was a young man who was not unfamiliar with the sensation of frustration. In fact, he had encountered the sensation so often that, in his spare time, he had categorized all of the various flavors of frustration he had sampled over the years. Right now his mouth was full of the bitter taste of '_I-have-absolutely-no-idea-what-to-do-next._'

So far, he had been able to deduce that the temple robber had not forced his way into the temple complex, nor did the robber force his way into any of the shrines which had been burglarized. To Sokka, that meant that the robber must have had the help of someone from inside of the temple. These were all great clues, but the problem was that he had nowhere to go with them now.

It would be useless to try and interrogate every single person who called the temple of Sowjanya home, there were just too many for Katara, Toph, and himself to handle. Plus, there was the fact that this whole investigation was never initiated with the intention of solving the mystery of who robbed the temple. Sokka had thought this whole thing up as a way of keeping himself and his companions busy and not having them all obsessing over Aang's safety.

This temple mystery was an interesting puzzle but Sokka was, frankly, at the end of his rope. The more time that they spent in this valley, the more anxious he became. It wasn't as if time was going to stop for them just because they got caught up in the affairs of a little mountain valley at the periphery of the Earth Kingdom. There was a war going on! Every day, every hour, every minute that they spent here was a day, an hour, a minute that the Fire Nation was getting one inch closer to taking down the walls of Ba Sing Se.

But more important than Ba Sing Se was the avatar himself; it had been two days since they had last seen their little bald friend. Sokka did not know exactly how Aang crossed his consciousness over onto the other plane, but he knew that it involved sitting, meditation, and a trance state where the avatar was virtually comatose. Comatose people did not eat or drink.

So while he studied the idols, while he chewed on the tip of the totally awesome pipe that he had found, and as he rubbed his finger under his chin and '_hmm-hmm'd'_ importantly, he could feel himself beginning to become undone on the inside.

But he was a man. He was a warrior of the Southern Water Tribe. He had his pride. He had his duty to be strong, even when he felt like despairing. So he put on his most self-satisfied smirk and pretended that everything was alright.

He saw his sister reentering the shrine out of the corner of his eye. Turning to look at her, he worked to put his best face forward.

"Now that you've had your break, ready to get back to work?"

* * *

_Jagged pillars of rock reached up from out of a sea of white mist like the fingers of some drowning underworld deity. One who had managed to force his body to take him all the way to the surface, far enough for his fingers to penetrate the surface and his eyes to glimpse daylight, before his lungs finally collapsed and he was left dying a slow death after being so close to saving his life. _

_Aang shook his head violently. Where in the hell did those dark thoughts come from? _

_Wind whipped past the younger avatar's head as he jumped from the top of one jagged rock to another. The Spirit World was becoming increasingly more mysterious the more time that he spent here. He had been following behind Avatar Amaya for what seemed like hours now._

_He felt his feet come into contact with the top of another rock and immediately focused the ambient qi surrounding his legs and used the spiritual energy to give himself an air boost. Along the course of their journey, the elder avatar had given Aang a crash course in manipulating qi; they were both surprised at how quickly he had picked up the concept. It was weird; he knew that what he was summoning to propel himself forwards wasn't really air, but it felt exactly the same as the real thing. _

_When they had left that macabre forest, Amaya had said that they needed to travel to a place known as 'the Death' a corrupted region of the Spirit World, where the source of the evil that was invading the living world was located. _

_As the two of them hopped from rock to rock across the vast expanse, Aang let his mind drift backward to the conversation that the two avatars had had before they had left on their mission._

_(Flashback)_

"_Ghost hunting," Aang asked incredulously. _

"_Yep," Amaya sighed. "The one responsible for all of the trouble being caused in the living world isn't an angry nature spirit; it's a very old, very angry human spirit. Before we go on, I should probably let you know some things before we just rush headlong into _the Death_."_

"The Death?"_ Aang made a face, equal parts fear and curious anticipation. Amaya simply rolled her eyes at the younger avatar's expression._

"_I'll get to that part later." The Sun Warrior leaned against one of the trees without regard to the many limbs, and faces that she was resting her back upon. _

"_Right, well, this story starts when I was the living avatar, which would have been about… two thousand years ago? Anyway, during those times, the entirety of this continent was chaotic with battle. In the millennia preceding the unification of the Land of Earth into the Earth Kingdom, hundreds of petty kingdoms fought with each other for dominance. War, and the pestilence, starvation, and degradation that accompanies it, caused many lives to be destroyed."_

_The elder avatar's voice had grown bitter and angry; the current avatar said not a word. _

"_The valley of the Indu was no exception; about eighty years before my time as avatar, this valley was the center of a thriving kingdom with dreams of conquest and expansion. Expand is exactly what the Indu did; but eventually, they bit off more than they could chew. Their neighbors were pissed off and decided that they weren't going to be bullied anymore. In one final, climactic battle, the entire Indu army was slaughtered; tens of thousands of soldiers were killed. Then, the victorious army marched on the capital city and sacked it; seven whole days of rape, murder, arson and terror. The bodies were just left to rot and the valley became regarded as cursed."_

"_The kingdom was destroyed and the valley was laid to waste. It was decades before anyone came back to this place. A new community arose here and for a while, everything was alright."_

_There was a pause for effect. _

"_But then, mysterious things started happening. People started disappearing in the middle of the night; the clouds always seemed to blot the sky and cover the sun. As time went on, more and more people started to die and there were reports of an otherworldly white mist and ghostly figures which came into the town at night. I was traveling on my way to the northern Air Temple when I sensed the corrupted _

_spiritual aura coming from the valley. I went there to investigate and found out that the sources of the chaos were the angry spirits of the people who had died there eighty years ago."_

"_I thought that human spirits immediately passed on to be reincarnated," Aang said. _

"_They do, and they did in this case too," Amaya replied, "but the amount of hatred, rage, fear and sadness that all of those people experienced right before they died remained. I realized that these spirits didn't have a consciousness of their own; they were just manifestations of wrath. I immediately got to work exorcising the spirits and had almost had them banished, when something unexpected happened."_

"_What was that," Aang asked, the eagerness in his voice mostly suppressed. _

_Avatar Amaya gave a wry smile at the younger avatar. "One of them physically manifested and cut my throat." The elder avatar emphasized the word throat by slowly drawing her right index finger across her jugular. Aang cringed. Avatar Amaya indulged in a small chuckle at the airbender's expense. _

"_Even though I was dead, the battle still wasn't over; the playing field was just changed. We continued to clash after I passed over into the Spirit World and, eventually, I was able to get the situation under control. Mostly."_

_Aang heard the pause in her voice; he narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean by mostly," he said slowly. To his surprise, the Sun Warrior avatar actually looked a little bit embarrassed. _

"_I clashed with it for a while- I think we managed to destroy a pretty sizable area between the two of us. Eventually I realized that I wasn't going to be able to outright exorcise the thing. The best that I could do was use my powers to place the spirit into a dormant state, so I used qi to bind the spirit into a stone."_

"_If you put it into a dormant state, then what's the ghost doing going around creating the spirit creatures and attacking people now?"_

_Amaya simply shrugged in response. "Honestly, I couldn't tell you what it was exactly that triggered the spirit to awaken. One thing that I've learned though is that creatures of rage and hatred are attracted to others like themselves. My best guess is that someone whose spirit was burdened with an incredible amount of anger came close enough to awaken the ghost."_

_The idea that there was someone walking around out there who was crammed with enough fury to awaken a two thousand year old ghost from its hibernation was disquieting. The thought of a person like that made him sad; he could only wonder what kind of life that person had to have lived to have ended up so twisted._

"_Tell me about _the Death_." _

* * *

The Death_; desolation, pure and perfect. Beyond the valley of rocks stood this place; the Death. The Spirit World was the land of the dead, but it never felt to Aang like death really belonged there. But this place…… death, in all of its horror, it's finality; it belonged here. There was no life here, only nothingness. Everything was shrouded in the eerie half-light of the Spirit World, yet this place somehow managed to _

_seem darker than the rest of the Spirit World. The corrupted energy that Aang had been feeling since he had arrived in the valley of the Indu weighed heavily upon his small shoulders; his head hurt. _

_He felt the sensation of eyes watching him; all around him he felt the presence of other, unseen, bodies. He felt the presence of a pair of invisible hands encircling his neck, poised to close into death grip, poised to squeeze the life out of him. _

_A harsh wind swept across the barren landscape kicking up dust. Here and there, a crater dotted the landscape. The wind blew with enough force so that the dirt stung when it hit his skin. Aang squinted his eyes and looked forward, into the distance. He did not know what he was looking for; only that something told him that he needed to be alert. _

_Amaya stood by his side staring off into the distance. Looking through the blowing winds and dust for their adversary. So far there was nothing. _

'Where are you? Two big, juicy, fountains of qi energy like us and you're not coming to try and rip us limb from limb._'_

_It should be coming; where was it….. where was it……. Where…..?_

_The Sun Warrior avatar felt a tremor up her spine. It had been millennia since she had felt that corrupt, wretched spiritual energy but she was instantly able to recognize the feeling. It was just as repugnant as she remembered it to be. _

_Her left arm shot out and grabbed the neck of Aang's shirt and pulled the airbender and herself backwards, just as the ground that they had been standing on barely a second before exploded._

"_There you are!" The Sun Warrior avatar's lips curled back over her teeth, her fangs bared in primal fury._

_Aang's eyes bugged out of his head as he caught his first glimpse of the malevolent spirit. He felt his guts constrict; for some ridiculous reason he found that he had the urge to throw up, despite the fact that as a being constructed from qi energy, he had nothing to throw up. The creature was just too hideous. _

_The young avatar did not even have words to describe what he was seeing; what words could he possibly use to convey the horror of what he was seeing? The spirit was massive; the size of four Sky Bison. It had no shape; it was just a sickening lump of grayish-beige flesh. Thousands of human faces decorated the surface of the creature, just like the trees back in the grotesque forest; thousands of fleshy tentacles sprouted from the thing's body. The worst thing was the sound the creature made. _

_The wailing was unbelievable. Thousands of screams erupted from the throats of thousands of lost souls, forever reliving the moments where their lives were stolen from them. By some miracle, Aang was able to keep his feet while staring down the creature. _

"_Aang!"_

_The airbender's head snapped to his side. He saw Amaya, crouched down into a bending stance, eyes intent on their adversary. _

"_Get behind me," she barked. Aang didn't hesitate; he immediately leaped into position behind the Sun Warrior. _

"_Remember, do it just like we planned!"_

_The airbender quickly assumed the horse stance. Using his newly learned skills of qi manipulation, Aang quickly began gathering qi energy from the surrounding environment and began channeling it into his own body. The young avatar felt the spiritual energy surround him, warming him on the inside; he gathered the qi and held it within his body._

_While the younger avatar gathered a sizable amount of qi energy, the elder avatar began her attack. The qi that Aang was gathering acted to supercharge Amaya's attacks. Since Aang was unused to using qi for combat purposes, it was decided that he would act as support while Amaya would handle all of the attacking. The two avatars had developed this tactic on their journey to _the Death.

_The Sun Warrior avatar received the gathered energy from Aang and went on the offensive, sending an amazingly powerful blast of blue fire which struck the creature in its side. The pitch of creatures constant screaming got a bit higher as the flames impacted against its fleshy mass. _

"_Get ready to move," Amaya shouted over the noise of screaming and the concussion from the fire blast. Aang barely had enough time to register the words before he caught something coming at him out of the corner of his eye. Using qi, the airbender avatar propelled himself upwards on a blast of qi-wind, just barely avoiding a blindingly fast tentacle which whipped just under his toes. Aang landed heavily on his feet and watched the creature to see if it was going to attack again. _

"_Are you alright kid," a disembodied voice asked. Avatar Amaya materialized from the earth in front of the younger avatar. _

"_Whoa! Will I be able to reform myself from dirt too?"_

"_Sure, after about eight hundred years of practice," Amaya replied, never once taking her eyes off of the monstrosity._

"_Watch out; things are about to get serious."_

_Aang immediately began gathering more qi as the Sun Warrior avatar charged forward. As Aang kept his distance, Amaya charged forward and generated enough qi-wind to blast herself up and over the creature. As she flew over the fleshy mass Amaya peppered the creature's bulk with numerous fire blasts before coming down on the other side of the creature. _

_She began running around the body, dodging the hundreds of strikes that the creature sent her way. While Aang had to concentrate to gather qi energy, he still found enough time to watch the battle between the Sun Warrior avatar and the anguished spirit. He had never seen, or even hoped to see _

_anything like this in his life. The way that Amaya deftly avoided the vicious attacks from the creature was amazing to behold. _

_The Sun Warrior nimbly dodged and attacked the creature, darting in to bombard and harass the monster before leaping backwards out of reach of the creature, only to attack once more. How different this was from all of the battles that he taken place on the living plane. This was more of a clash between two gods. _

_Suddenly, Amaya stumbled as the monstrosity caught one of her legs with its tentacles, tripping her up. Aang saw the creature lifted several of its tentacles, ready to bring them down in a ferocious attack. Moving without thinking, Aang rushed over to the Sun Warrior's side; summoning up qi energy, Aang directed the energy in front of himself and Amaya, forming a bubble of protective energy around their bodies. _

_The tentacles impacted the qi shield only to bounce off ineffectively. The impact from the tentacles sent tremors through the young avatar's body; it took all of his concentration to maintain the shield. Using all of the qi that he could muster, Aang directed it straight outwards in an incredibly powerful blast of qi-wind, driving the creature back. _

_The young avatar collapsed onto one knee; Amaya quickly rose to her feet to see to the expended airbender. _

"_You were hiding a few tricks from me huh kid?"_

_Aang snorted, "I can be pretty amazing." _

_His good mood was spoiled by the tentacle that appeared to be growing out of his chest. _

"_Wha?" _

* * *

**Wah nahh nahhhhh!! I really wanted to finish up the whole Spirit Creature Arc in three chapters, but it seems that it's taking longer than expected. This arc will be finished in the next chapter, and we may even get to see what Zuko's been doing all this time. **

**Allons-y!**


	8. Chapter 8

_Here's Chapter 8. I hope you all enjoy. _

Chapter 8

"_Wha?"_

_Aang stood, completely transfixed at the tentacle that seemed to be growing out of the center of his chest. When had that happened? Just a second ago he was being congratulated by his predecessor, wasn't he? He felt a wretched sensation of being enveloped in the monster's qi. Aang felt his mind becoming increasingly muddled; it was getting hard for him to form thoughts. _

_The young airbender barely registered it when he felt his feet leaving the ground. 'Am I going up,' the disoriented avatar wondered. As Amaya looked on in grim resignation, the monster, having firmly impaled its small victim on a tentacle, began lifting Aang's body into the air. It was as if the monstrosity wished to examine its new prize. _

_The Sun Warrior avatar quickly retreated to a safe distance; a spirit that got caught in the clutches of that monster was as good as gone. The creature would devour stray spirits, integrating their essence into its own, making them a part of it. A spirit which got absorbed into the creature would descend into hell, to forever relive the moment of their deaths. Amaya forcefully bit back the guilt that was sweeping over her heart. She couldn't dwell on the fate of the younger avatar, not now; right now, she still had a monster to destroy. It was all that she could do for Aang at this point._

_Aang felt himself being drained, of what, he wasn't sure. His scattered brain had trouble focusing on anything around him and he was having trouble even linking his thoughts together. The only one of his senses that was still working properly was his hearing. He could hear, screams; horrible, tear inducing, gut-wrenching; screams filled with sadness, screams of rage, screams of hatred, screams of agony; the scream of a man having his guts ripped open from a sword thrust, the scream of a little girl as she was being gang raped, the scream of a mother as she watches her only son having his head split open by an enemy solider. The young avatar's eyes could not come into focus, and yet somehow he saw these things happening. He saw all of the tens of thousands of deaths happening at the same time._

_Aang struggled to pull his mind out of the fog that it was swimming in; he couldn't stay like this. He had to figure out what was going on, figure out where he was. The young avatar tried to lift his arms to grasp the thing that he felt in his chest but his arms did not seem to want to obey his commands. The airbender forced all of his will into getting his dead limbs moving; gradually, he was able to bring them up far enough so that he could lay hands on the creature's tentacle. _

_Aang gripped the sides of the tentacle tightly and tried to force himself backwards; he couldn't stay connected to that thing, he had to be free of the ghastly screams and the images. He managed to move a little bit; it hurt. Pain was good. It gave his mind something else to focus on besides the nightmare images that were flashing through his brain. _

'I've gotta keep going, I've gotta keep going.'

_The young avatar tried to continue on, but his strength failed him. His arms dropped and hung limply down the sides of his body. Already he could feel his consciousness being siphoned out of his skull to __become a part of the monsters. Aang could not see he could not fight; all he could do was just hang there and let it happen._

'Though we do not have as much experience and our masters, we feel that we would be able to provide you with some help…'

_What was that? At the edge of his consciousness, Aang could feel their presence. Another demon created by the creature to torment his rapidly deteriorating mind? No, that couldn't be it… the spiritual presence wasn't corrupted enough. Amaya? No, wait, not her. There was more than one!_

_They struck him with the force of a bolt of lightning. The young avatar's eyes snapped open; his dead limbs suddenly resurrected. He felt a surge of power go through him, more power than could rightfully fit in his body. The energy rushed out of Aang's body, incinerating the tentacle that had impaled the airbender through his chest. _

_The spirit creature's thousands of throats let out single a piercing scream; the massive creature shuddered. Aang landed lightly at the base of the creature. This feeling was amazing! He felt like a brand new Aang. He looked down at himself and was surprised to find that, for some reason, his skin had turned blue. His exposed arms and torso was covered in strange runes; apparently, his shirt had been destroyed in the surge of power that had incinerated the monster's tentacle. _

_He flexed his fingers; this was totally unlike anything he had ever felt before. The strangest thing of all was that it felt like he wasn't alone; like there were others sharing his skin with him. The transformed avatar extended his left hand and dropped into an airbending stance. _

'We are…'

"… _A barrier!"_

* * *

_Avatar Amaya had been alive for twenty seven years, and dead for over two thousand. She had seen many things in her time on both worlds. She was not the type to be awed easily. What she had just now witnessed… this was one of the rare situations that could give her pause. The younger avatar was putting out almost as much spiritual energy as the monster itself. _

'You never get old enough to see everything, I guess.'

_She had seen Aang being pierced by the monster. She had thought that the younger avatar was doomed, yet in a matter of seconds, it appeared that the tables had turned. Through the dust, Amaya saw a small figure fall from the clutches of the monster to land softly on the ground. _

_The Sun Warrior quickly ran towards the other avatar, gathering qi all the while. The battle tested avatar knew an opportunity when she saw one. _

_Darting past the younger avatar, Amaya leaped into the air and slammed her fists down into the earth. The airbender barely caught a glimpse of the elder avatar as she sped past him. He turned and watched __as the ground around the creature cracked and splintered and the monster was swallowed up by the earth._

_Amaya bent a massive amount of qi-wind and directed all of it down her throat. Aang watched, dumbstruck, as the Sun Warrior's belly bloated like the neck of a croaking ox-frog before ejecting an enormous wave of fire into the pit. The furious blue flames washed over the entirety of the creature, turning the whole pit into a gigantic bonfire._

_The Sun Warrior avatar turned to face the airbender avatar; Aang knew from the look on her face that it was his turn. The blue avatar concentrated on gathering qi before the creature managed to pull itself out of the pit._

'We are a shield.'

_Compared to before, gathering qi was so much easier; it felt as if he wasn't the only one collecting energy, it was like he had someone helping him._

'We are a sword.'

_So much power! _

'We are a barrier!'

_Aang took in as much qi as he was able to gather and focused the energy into his own body. In one swift motion, the airbender wheeled his body into the airbender Circle Dance, releasing every ounce of the pent up qi on the twelfth and final movement. The entirety of 'the Death' was blasted with hurricane force winds, terrifying in their intensity. Had there been anything on the barren landscape to be uprooted, the entire area would have been stripped bare. _

_The spirit creature had no chance; caught in the heart of the storm, it was torn apart. Aang stood, his mastery of the air keeping him rooted in place, until the howling winds finally died down. He stood upright and flexed his fingers. Aang sighed and sunk down on his haunches. _

_The young avatar was once again treated to the oddity of seeing his previous incarnation rising up from out of the earth. _

"_So that's where you went," the exhausted airbender said after Amaya had fully risen out of the ground. _

"_Of course, I wasn't trying to get torn apart by that devil wind you summoned up." The Sun Warrior avatar gave an appreciative look at the devastation wrought by the younger avatar. Amaya grunted in what might have been approval. _

_There was a marked pause as the two avatars continued to observe the ruined landscape. Aang had really done a number on the surrounding environment. Amaya cracked her neck and yawned. _

"_You've been around for a few thousand years, seen a lot of stuff, right," Aang asked the elder avatar._

"…_. Yeah."_

"_So… can you, like, tell me why I'm blue and have all this stuff written on me?"_

_The Sun Warrior avatar gave Aang a once over. "Those symbols you've got on you are the language of Indu. Don't ask me what any of it means because I don't know more than ten words of that gibberish. As to why you're blue," Amaya frowned shrugged her shoulders, "the hell if I know." _

_The elder avatar offered Aang her hand. After hesitating for a second, the airbender grabbed Sun Warrior's hand and allowed her to help him to his feet. _

_Amaya gave the younger avatar an even look. "I suppose that I should thank you for helping me out." The airbender was mildly surprised when Amaya smiled at him; not a smirk, not some sarcastic half-smile, but a real, genuine smile-smile. The younger avatar blushed in embarrassment and rubbed the back of his bald head. _

"_Aww, it's no big deal." Aang put on an aloof face in an attempt to play off his embarrassment. Avatar Amaya had a very hard time swallowing her laughter. _

'Awwww, he's so cute, trying to act all cool.'

"_So what's next," Aang asked. Amaya, jolted out of her reverie, replied. _

"_Next? Well, your part in this whole affair is done; you're going home. I, on the other hand, have some more work to do."_

_The blue airbender looked at the Sun Warrior avatar quizzically. "You mean there's more? I thought we had destroyed the spirit creature."_

_Amaya shook her head in mock sadness. For an avatar, the boy was severely lacking in knowledge of spirits and the Spirit World. _

"_The thing that we fought was an amalgamation of thousands of different individual spirits. You can destroy a spirit body, which is what we did, but you can't destroy a spirit. That creature was torn to pieces; now comes the tedious part where I've got to go around and mollify all of those malignant spirits we just released." _

_Aang gave a low whistle. "That's harsh." _

"_Forget about it kid, I've got all of the time in the Spirit World."_

_The Sun Warrior avatar placed her palm on the younger avatar's forehead. "Now, I think it's time for you to be heading back."_

_Aang smiled, "It was good meeting you."_

_Amaya smiled back. "The same to you."_

* * *

For the first few seconds, everything was dark. Aang's eyes snapped open, only to quickly slam shut again; the sunlight streaming into the chamber from one of the high windows stung his eyes. Noting his increased sensitivity to light, the young airbender opened his eyes, slowly this time. He examined his hands; no blue skin, no Indu writing. A dull ache pounded in between Aang's temples; the young avatar grasped his staff and struggled to pull himself to his feet. He felt drained of all of his energy.

'_How long was I in the Spirit World,'_ he wondered.

Leaning heavily on his staff, Aang was about to make his way towards the door when he stopped short; strewn about on the floor lay the bodies of the vassals of the high priests. Aang stopped. And stared. Their bodies were dried out husks, the same as their masters.

'…_we feel that we would be able to provide you with some help.'_

Wordlessly, the airbender avatar sat back down into the lotus position, closed his eyes, and recited the Air Nomad's lament for the departed.

'_Spark becomes budding flame.'_

He thrust forth his left fist and ejected a concentrated blast of fire, setting a nearby log on fire.

'_Budding flame nurtures youthful fire.'_

In one fluid motion, the topless young man moved from his previous stance, twisted his torso and thrust the middle and index fingers on his right hand, sending a thin line of fire to his rear. The flaming stream set a nearby bush alight.

Continuing the motion, the young man dropped down into a low sweep kick, rotating three hundred sixty degrees and emitting a wave of fire from his outstretched foot. All of the grass and foliage surrounding the boy was quickly engulfed in merrily burning flames.

'_The youthful fire begets raging blaze.'_

Bringing his trailing leg in tightly along his torso so that both of his feet were planted firmly on the ground, the scarred firebender gave a powerful push off of the ground, propelling him several feet into the air. His body hung aloft for a split second; he took a breath. This was hard part.

Twisting his lower body, the firebender lashed out in a vicious blast of fire from his right leg. Still in the air, the scarred young man flung his upper body forwards in a hard roll. Folding his torso into his crotch and tucking his body into a front flip, the scarred firebender brought his left leg downwards and ejected ferocious blast of flames.

The scarred bender landed heavily; he wobbled but was able to keep his balance. Filling his lungs with as much air as he could force into them, he thrust both arms outward on either side of his body. Simultaneously the firebender worked his abdominal muscles to create his Breath of Fire. While two jets of fire erupted from his fists, he only managed to project a gust of super-heated steam from his mouth.

Disappointing.

By now, most of the grove that Lee was practicing in was engulfed in flames. Flames which were growing in intensity much faster than he had originally thought that they would; the scarred firebender sighed in frustration.

That was the problem with firebending; if you were doing it around things that were flammable, you could end up destroying your practice space. Lee straightened himself up, placing his hands together just above his stomach. He took a deep breath, distending his belly and filling his diaphragm with air.

The flames which surrounded him on all sides suddenly receded, going from burgeoning inferno to minor brush fire in under five seconds. Everything that lives needs to breathe; it's a law of nature. More so than any other element, fire is alive. A firebender has the power to rob a flame of its 'breath'; a living thing can't live without air.

'Raging fire becomes dying embers.'

Lee stretched his tired muscles and carefully surveyed the destruction that he had managed to wreak on what had been a pleasant copse full of young saplings and berry bushes. All of the bushes had been reduced to slowly smoldering twigs; most of the saplings had been unable to survive. The grass of the grove was covered with ugly black streaks.

Agni, it felt good be firebending again! He had been out of the Indu valley for weeks and yet the feeling of euphoria still refused to leave him. After having to cease bending for over a year while he was in prison and _then_ having to spend weeks undercover in that valley, he was discovering just how much he had missed it.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spied a single sapling that had miraculously managed to survive his onslaught with hardly a single singed leaf. He blasted it with a burst of fire; Jiji always said that it was never good to leave loose ends.

Before he had been imprisoned, he had viewed his bending as a means to an end; a tool to be used to help him achieve his goals. He hadn't noticed it at the time, but he now realized that the whole time he had been forced to hide his identity as a firebender he had felt incomplete. It was simple when he thought about it; he was a firebender. To be whole, he needed to firebend.

With any luck, those days were behind him; far behind him. The scarred vagabond spent the next few minutes stomping out the few still burning patches of grass and collecting his gear from where he had wedged them between two rocks a short distance from the stand of trees where he had been training.

Plopping himself down next to his things Lee pulled a sleeveless tunic and a forest green undershirt, two thirds of his wardrobe, out of his pack. After putting on the tunic and shirt, the scarred firebender pulled on his boots, sticking the long knife he had taken from dead- and thoroughly unlamented-Sergeant Du into the top of his right boot. Lee stood, throwing his traveling cloak over his shoulders; he stooped to pick up the sheath which housed his twin dao swords.

After checking to make sure that he had all of his items, Lee strolled his way back onto the dirt road that he had been traveling down since he had left the Songhay dominion. As he walked down the dusty road, the firebender found himself indulging in the favorite pastime of lone vagabonds the world over; musing.

Had he had a more buoyant personality, Lee may have felt pleased with how things had turned out for him. After making his escape from the temple of Sowjanya with his stolen booty he had managed to make his way southeast, out of the mountains and a good distance away from the valley of the Indu.

He had safely reached one of the many boomtowns which dotted the mountainous northern Earth Kingdom province. It was the kind of town where nobody asked strangers questions about who they were or what they were doing there. He had been fortunate to find a few merchants who were in the market for items that he was selling.

Lee had walked away from that town with a sturdy twine and hide rucksack stuffed full of the small amenities that were essential to any would be wanderer- compass, map of the Earth Kingdom, etc. He had also purchased a new pair of dao swords, a set of clothes that actually fit, and a pair of boots which didn't pinch his toes.

Lastly, Lee had shelled out most of his remaining money on a master forger. To the world, the scarred firebender was Jei-Lee, son of the farmer Jei-Lung, native of the Kunlun- an insignificant village situated at an insignificant crossroads miles from anywhere of consequence. He was a semi-literate Earth Kingdom peasant from a long line of semi-literate Earth Kingdom peasants, and he had the papers to prove it.

In wild frontier regions like the Songhay dominion, government authority was concentrated in the towns and the war against the Fire Nation was treated as, at best, a distant afterthought. The countryside was virtually lawless and a traveler was pretty much free to go wherever he wanted. The situation was different in the central provinces of the Earth Kingdom, where he was currently headed.

The central provinces were where the lion-turtle's share of the Earth Kingdom's population was located. The central regions were the breadbasket of the Earth Kingdom; virtually all of the Earth Kingdom's rice and grain came from western and central provinces. Most importantly, the war was still going hot down there.

Lee would not be free to roam around as he pleased. The roads were littered with numerous checkpoints and regularly patrolled by mounted Earth Kingdom troopers. An unidentified young man found walking around the countryside was subject to being lynched as a Fire Nation spy. Having a passbook was vital for survival.

The next several days were uneventful for Lee; aside from the odd peasant tending his flock of sheep-boars and an encounter with a contingent of Earth Kingdom foot soldiers moving towards the ever changing front lines, he was by himself.

Stopping to check his map, the scarred vagrant tried to figure out his next move. He had crossed the border from the Songhay dominion several weeks ago and he was now in…. Wangjae province? He wasn't altogether sure but he thought that he had been through this country before. It had to have been around two years ago.

'_Yeah, I have been through this province before. That was when Uncle Ir-' _

Lee abruptly halted that train of thought before it could develop any further. He felt the sharp pain run through his chest and cursed Agni, Tui, La, and every other spirit he could think of. He reserved his vilest curses for himself for being so weak.

The dead were dead; the past was the past. There was nothing he could do about anything that happened before. Dwelling on the past would prevent him from seeing what was happening in the present. Forcing the flood of emotions back into the box where they had been kept for so long, Lee folded his map back up and put it in his pack.

According to the map, the nearest town of any consequence was Onsung. If he pressed on he should be able to get there in two days time, maybe less. He was starting to get thin again; he would be able to buy a decent meal after he scrounged up some money. He would be able to find work once he got to Onsung- or at the very least he would find some fat merchant to rob. Two cent towns like Onsung always had some jumped up commoner or petty noble who was more prosperous than his neighbors and enjoyed rubbing their faces in that fact. Nobody would care if they were suddenly a little less prosperous.

Sporting a small, unpleasant grin, Lee got back on the road. He scratched underneath his chin. His smile got a bit wider; a fine beard was on the verge by the feel of it.

* * *

"_Rohilala!"_

_Avatar Amaya's firm voice cut through the gloom surrounding the Spirit World swamp. She seriously was not in the mood to be kept waiting; she had just finished vanquishing a 2000 year old malevolent spirit and she wasn't about to be ignored now. _

"_Rohilala," she shouted again into the surrounding darkness. After seeing off Aang, the Sun Warrior avatar had immediately left the Death. Though she still had a large job to do, what with pacifying all of the stray spirits released from the spirit creature, there was one thing she had to see about first. _

_Amaya opened her mouth to shout again when she was preempted by a guttural bark that rumbled out of the darkness._

"_Would you keep your voice down? I heard you the first time."_

_A deep bass voice accosted the Sun Warrior avatar from the shadows underneath the exposed roots of an enormous mangrove tree. Through the darkness and mists, all Amaya could see of the one who spoke to her was a gigantic pair of glowing yellow eyes. _

"_Congratulations by the way. It's taken the avatar, what, two thousand years to finally banish that nasty little tentacle blob thing?"_

"_I'm not here for polite conversation Rohilala, so let's just get to the point," the Sun Warrior avatar spat back. _

"_Explain to me why I was not and am still not able to see the individual which caused the creature to come out of its hibernation?"_

_Rohilala gave a large snort. "Maybe you're not as good as you think you are? Besides, aren't avatars only able to stalk their current incarnations in the living world?"_

_The mockery behind Rohilala's voice was obvious to Amaya; if there was one thing that the taciturn avatar she could say that she hated, it was having someone make sport of her. _

"_The creature was bound to the Indu valley, I was bound to the creature, you're smart enough to add one plus one, and your trying to change the subject is not about to throw me off. Tell me why you were blocking me from seeing the person who caused all of this!"_

_Rohilala sighed in obvious disappointment at the Sun Warrior's refusal to play his game; Amaya could swear that the giant pair of glowing eyes staring back at her dimmed. Good; let the bastard be disappointed._

"_Just so you know, it's not anything complicated. I was just assisting a kindred spirit."_

_It was getting very hard for Amaya not to erupt in anger. "A kindred spirit? What is that supposed to mean? I swear Rohilala, give me a straight answer or I'll…"_

"_Or you'll what," the eyes shot back. "Sorry, but I'm not going to let you hold the high card; not this time. This time, everybody's just going to sit back and watch how things play out on their own." _

_With those last words, the pair of glowing eyes quickly faded back into the darkness. Avatar Amaya stood her ground and shouted for Rohilala to come back, to show himself, to explain his reasons for doing what he did. _

_It was too late; the mysterious Rohilala was long gone. She wasn't altogether sure, but her gut told her that no good was going to come of whatever the spirit was planning. _

"_Fuck…" _


	9. Chapter 9

_Chapter Nine is done; At Last. I think that this one was the hardest chapter to write, but I feel good about how everything is playing out so far. Big thanks to all of my readers and reviewers; it's a great feeling to know that people are still reading and enjoying this fic. _

Chapter 9

"I'll give you fifty stone for the wheat."

The wholesaler's pockmarked face was impossible to read. The man simply gazed levelly at the three hanbok clad men in front of him. Their ages ranged from early twenties to the late forties and fifties, but all three shared the same looks of anger mixed with desperation. The youngest of the group, a burly suntanned man with thick limbs, looked just about ready to pop.

"Fifty… fifty stone! What kind of shit are you trying to pull on us?"

Pop away.

The next oldest man, to whom the youngest man bore a strong resemblance, tried to shush the younger man. "Joo-Hwan," the older man said archly, "Please calm down. There is no need to use such language!"

The oldest man out the group, a tall, square jawed fellow with a balding scalp and a beard which fell down to the center of his chest placed a restraining hand on the youngest man's shoulder; the young Joo-Hwan, however, was far from being pacified. The wholesaler watched as the youngest the three shook off the older man's hand. Joo-Hwan was fed up and nothing was going to stop him from venting his rage on someone.

"Uncle Hoi, how can you stand here and say that? You do realize that this bastard," he stuck an accusatory finger at the pockmarked wholesaler, "is trying to cheat us don't you?"

Uncle Hoi's eyes darted back and forth nervously between his irate nephew and the pockmarked wholesaler who stood by watching the argument impassively. Hoi pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and quickly wiped his brow, nervously eyeing the wholesaler. He looped an arm around his nephew's neck and brought his mouth close to the younger man's ear.

"Joo-Hwan, please be sensible about this," Hoi said in his most persuasive tone. "I understand that we're going to need all of the money that we can get our hands on for this journey, and I do realize that we're being cheated, but it's a bad idea to go around insulting the locals. Can't you just take his price and let this go?"

Joo-Hwan looked at his uncle as if the other man had suddenly grown a third eye in the middle of his forehead. "Let this go?!" Joo-Hwan shouted in disbelief; he couldn't believe that the two of them were willing to cave so quickly. "Uncle, we're being robbed here and you don't even want to put up a fight!"

The young man stormed over to the cart that the three of them had rode up in and grabbed a single sack full of grain. Tossing the sack at the feet of Pockmark, Joo-Hwan jammed himself nose to nose with the grain wholesaler and thrust an angry finger at the sack on the ground.

"That one bag alone is worth 30 stone," he snarled. "Taken altogether what we've got is worth 3 times what you're trying to give us!"

The wholesaler calmly wiped the bits of spittle that flew from Joo-Hwan's mouth from his face.

"Look," the wholesaler said slowly in a tone full of reason and common sense. "You can yell and scream and bitch for as long as you want. My price is going to stay at 50 stones. If you don't like that then take your business elsewhere. "

Sticking out his chest and defiantly stating that he would do just that, the irate young farmer and his two older companions quickly packed up their things and left. Pockmark watched them go off in search of one of his rival wholesalers; not that any of them were going to give that angry young man a better price for his grain. No matter where he went, the most that he could expect to receive was fifty stones. Besides, the other wholesalers weren't nearly as even tempered and forgiving as Pockmark was; if the youngster tried to disrespect them in the same way that he had disrespected Pockmark… well, that's what stupid outsiders got for acting like they ran things in Onsung.

Whatever. It was in the hands of the spirits now; he had a business to run.

* * *

Onsung was turning out to be everything that Lee had been expecting it to be. Admittedly, he hadn't expected much. Compared to some of the grand cities that he had visited in his short lifetime, Onsung was nothing special. The town even lacked the quaint beauty of a country village. He might as well just come out and admit it- Onsung was ugly. It wasn't just ugly physically, the place had an ugliness in its aura as well. The buildings were drab stone boxes rising two to three stories in the air; they were tightly packed together. The streets were crammed full of people moving every-which-way; a pickpocket's paradise.

Despite what Lee may have thought of Onsung, the fact was that by being situated on the edge between the wild outer provinces and the Earth Kingdom's more 'civilized' core, Onsung was a place of some importance. This was evidenced by the fact that the guards at the town gate actually took the time to examine his passbook instead of giving it the cursory glance that he had become accustomed to receiving from border guards in the outer provinces.

As Lee walked the packed and dusty streets of Onsung, he savored the sensation of being able to walk through a town and not having to watch his back. His mind told him that it was foolish to assume that he could breathe easier in Onsung, but he decided to ignore the nagging feeling of paranoia for the moment. What were the chances that anyone was looking for a banished Fire Prince or an escaped murderer from some backwater province? To the locals he'd just look like another refugee and to the refugees he would just look like someone to avoid.

Scratching the stubble that was beginning to grow on his cheeks and chin, Lee decided to walk around the town to familiarize himself with his surroundings before going to find someplace where he could settle down for the night- maybe he'd get a bite to eat if he found someplace good. There was really no telling how long he was going to be in Onsung.

'_Knowing my luck, I'll probably need to make a quick escape from somewhere before long,_' the scar faced vagrant thought cynically. Arbitrarily selecting an alley to his left which looked nice and deserted- aside from the odd prostitute and passed out drunk- Lee proceeded to get himself lost.

* * *

"I really don't get why you can't just come down on the price of those passbooks. I mean, wouldn't that be the neighborly thing to do?"

Smellerbee was- once again- amazed by the many abilities that her leader seemingly pulled out of his ass. Who would have guessed that Jet had such good interrogation skills? The Freedom Fighter leader had merely asked the pudgy, balding fellow sitting across from them a question. It wasn't even a question that had been voiced as a threat; there was no hint of malice or ill will in Jet's voice at all. He could have been asking the guy for something as innocuous as a bag of lychee nuts. And yet the guy sitting across from them- a local forger of considerable renown- looked to be exactly two seconds away from shitting himself.

"S-sorry pal, I w-wish it wasn't so but q-q-quality work costs," came the Forger's stuttered reply. Plucking his trademark twig from his mouth, the Freedom Fighter leaned across the narrow table towards the Forger. The Forger attempted to shrink back into his chair. Seemingly unaware of the pudgy fellow's unease around him, Freedom Fighter proceeded to try and bargain with the Forger in what Smellerbee recognized as Jet's 'persuasive voice.'

"Oh come on, all I'm asking for are three passbooks; I'm not even asking for anything elaborate. We just need something good enough to get us through the walls in Ba Sing Se."

Smellerbee stifled the chuckle she felt growing in her breast; this guy was just pathetic. Honestly, what kind of criminal starts to cave under such light pressure- to the female Freedom Fighter the Forger's twitchy behavior smacked of unprofessionalism. But… Jet had said that this guy was supposed to be their best bet to get them what they needed and Jet was the leader. She would follow his lead.

"I'm not even asking you for first rate stuff; we'll settle for three fourths rate stuff. Isn't that right Smellerbee?"

Jet turned and winked at the tomboy, receiving a gruff "hmn" in reply. Smellerbee noticed that the Forger's eyes were darting from the two of them to the door on the far side of the tavern where they sat. The guy obviously wanted to leave very much. Unfortunately for the Forger, Jet was not quite done with him yet. Standing up from his seat the Freedom Fighter quickly walked around the table and crouched down next to the spooked forger. He swung his arm around the Forger's shoulders as if the two were old comrades; the guy squeaked in a mix of surprise and terror.

Where he had been acting friendly before, Jet now assumed a façade that was deathly serious. Smellerbee sat up a little straighter after seeing the change in her leader's demeanor. Normally, one only saw that expression on Jet's face when the words 'Fire Nation' were mentioned.

'_He's going to really try and scare this chump now,_' Smellerbee thought to herself. The female Freedom Fighter could swear that she could hear the Forger's heart thumping inside of his chest. The sweat was cascading down the man's face from his bald pate. Jet made sure to keep his voice low so that only the forger and Smellerbee were able to hear him clearly over the commotion in the tavern. When the head Freedom Fighter spoke, his voice was as cold as ice.

"Let me be totally honest with you. All of those that you heard about me… they're all true."

'_Stories_?'

That was news to the tomboy. Smellerbee had thought that the Forger seemed way too anxious about meeting with them, especially since Jet, Longshot and herself had been in town for less than two weeks. Sure, they'd gotten into a few brawls- some bones may have gotten broken- but they had done nothing that was worthy of inducing involuntary bowel movements.

'Leave it to Jet to start spreading bullshit whenever he gets the chance.'

That's why Jet was the leader; he was always thinking two steps ahead of the guy who thought two steps ahead. The tomboy had no idea what kind of gruesome myth her leader had invented about the Freedom Fighters but it must have been a good one because the Forger quickly shot up out of his chair, sputtered that he needed to be somewhere else right now, and scurried towards the door.

"Jet," Smellerbee said slowly, drawing her leaders attention away from the forger blazing a hasty trail for the exit. "Just what the hell did you say to that guy?"

The Freedom Fighter leader gave his tomboy friend a playful shrug and stuck his twig back into his mouth. "I thought that I wasn't being too serious but I guess I may have overdid it, huh?"

"Ya think," was Smellerbee's annoyed response. Leader or not, Jet could be a real idiot sometimes. "So are we going after him or what?"

Jet folded his arms back behind his head and leaned back in the Forger's now vacant chair. "There's no rush. Longshot's outside watching this place, remember? Once he sees that guy running out of here, he'll tail him back to whatever hole he's operating out of. Once we know where he rests his head, we can pay him a little late night visit."

Smellerbee smiled at the thought of rousting the Forger out of his bed in the middle of the night. "Let's see him try to overcharge us with a sword tickling his kidneys."

"You got the idea," Jet replied.

Smellerbee crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. There was nothing left to do now except wait for Longshot to show up, and that could take hours. As long as they weren't going anywhere right away…

"Yo," the tomboy shouted across the bar to a waitress, "two beers over here!"

* * *

'_I-told-you-so.' _

Joo-Hwan hated that phrase with a passion. His mother- spirits rest her soul- had used that phrase every single time he had screwed up when he was a kid. Joo-Hwan was an independent minded person; always was and always would be. He enjoyed being able to do things for himself and he especially enjoyed doing things his _own_ way. He had always known that his attitude could land him in trouble; hell, it _had_ landed him in trouble plenty of times in his youth. And every single time his mom would be there with a fresh '_I-told-you-so'_ on her lips.

His mother's brother- the ever annoying Uncle Hoi- had apparently also inherited a love for spouting out 'I-told-you-so' as well.

"I told you that this would happen if you kept making a scene in town. Didn't I tell you to stop being rude to the wholesalers? Didn't I tell you to just accept their prices and be done with it? But nooo! No, you had to act like a hog-monkey and go on shouting and waving your hands and now look at yourself…"

Hoi just kept going on and on and gave no indication that he would be stopping before they got back to the campsite where the other members of their refugee party was currently squatting. Joo-Hwan would have happily told Hoi to go fuck himself with something long, hard and sandpapery but, at the moment, he was still having trouble forming words through his mangled lips and missing bottom teeth. He had gotten a little too fresh with one of the grain wholesalers and had been stomped into the ground by the man's goonish employees.

Uncle Hoi had managed to negotiate a deal with one of the wholesalers so that they received sixty stone for the grain- the fun that the wholesaler and his men had had beating Joo-Hwan to a pulp had been worth the extra ten stones. It was better than what they had been offered but it was still far less than what the grain was worth.

Silent Oh, the third member of their party, skillfully maneuvered the wagon through the bustling streets of Onsung, guiding the ox-boar which pulled the wagon through and around the crowds of moving people. While Silent Oh rode up front, Joo-Hwan lay prone in the back of the wagon, uncle Hoi wiping blood from his nephew's brow and nagging him the whole time through.

Late in the afternoon the wagon passed through the gates on the north side of Onsung and entered the sprawling shantytown that had sprung up in the shadow of Onsung's walls. Thousands of squatters sat huddled around cooking fires, crammed into tents, or just stood around idly socializing with their fellow refugees. Silent Oh halted the wagon next to a group of tents which were nestled together a small distance away from some of the other refugee settlements.

Around twenty men, women and children came up to the wagon to greet the members of their party who had returned from Onsung. Being the only members of the party who possessed passbooks Hoi, Joo-Hwan, and Silent Oh were the only ones who could legally enter Onsung's fortified walls.

Upon seeing the state that her husband had gotten himself in Joo-Hwan's wife Mikan rushed to the young farmer's side, her face full of worry. Joo-Hwan attempted to tell his wife to calm down and let her know that he was okay, but all that came out of his mouth was a jumbled hiss of mashed words; Mikan, rather than being placated as the farmer had hoped instead flew into hysterics. Seemingly convinced that she had just heard her husband utter his death rattle, the excitable young woman burst into uncontrollable sobbing. With a cry of '_they've killed my husband'_ the hysterical Mikan ran sobbing back into her tent.

Joo-Hwan covered his face with his hand in embarrassment and wondered why he had ever gotten married to such a brainless woman in the first place. If his mom had been alive to see that scene, she would have definitely been serving up a fresh '_I-told-you-so._' While the rest of the party laughed at the farmer and his ridiculous wife, Silent Oh discretely tapped Hoi on the shoulder. The older man gave Hoi a significant look.

"You're right Oh," Hoi said in agreement with the mute's unspoken statement. Turning to face the assembled refugees Hoi raised his voice.

"Attention everyone…"

Hoi waited until all of the members of the party gave him their undivided attention. "I think that, in light of recent events, a group meeting would be in order."

Within a matter of minutes all of the adults- with the exception of Joo-Hwan and the still sobbing Mikan- had gathered into a tight knot next to the wagon.

"What happened to Joo-Hwan today just proves that this place is much too dangerous and unpredictable," Hoi said. "We have to get on the road and get out of here before we all end up with our throats slit."

Hoi's statement was met with a general murmur of agreement from the assembled refugees. That was unsurprising; Onsung was a dangerous place, especially for outsiders. The shantytowns were full of thieves and bandits. The townspeople themselves were a shifty lot who took advantage of the refugees at every opportunity.

"Look Hoi, you already know none of us wants to stay here but right now, it's not like we have a choice," said Dan, a brawny former blacksmith.

There was yet another general murmur of agreement from the assembled refugees. There were many villainous types of people living in the shantytowns and in Onsung. There were just as many who prowled the countryside surrounding the town. Groups of bandits frequently attacked moving groups of refugees- who were for the most part unarmed- for whatever valuables they were carrying with them. Moving through open country would be especially troubling for Hoi's group; bandits did a brisk business kidnapping young women and children and selling them to brothels or as slaves in the outer provinces. Added into all of this was the fact that the terrain around Onsung was notoriously hazardous.

"It's not exactly true that we don't have any options at all," Hoi replied quickly. "We could hire a wagon master to guide us."

The murmur that greeted Hoi this time was colored by a clear sense of nervousness and reluctance. It wasn't as if the refugees were anxious without good reason; wagon masters knew how to navigate on the trail, but they were often as shady as the bandits who they protected their charges from. There wasn't a single person in the group that hadn't heard a horror story involving a naïve group of refugees and a wagon master who turned out to be a bandit chieftain.

Then there was the issue that everyone was avoiding; payment. The group of refugees didn't exactly have all that much to offer anyone who chose to take on the role of wagon master, and nobody in this town did things out of the goodness of their hearts. Seeing that the general mood of the group was leaning against the idea of hiring a wagon master, Hoi realized that he would have to bring out his secret weapon. He made a discreet gesture behind his back.

Silent Oh stood up and pushed his way to the center of the refugees. One by one, Silent Oh looked every man and woman dead I the eyes. He held them in his hypnotic gaze for only a few seconds. The force of the silent man's argument could not be disputed. Non more words were needed; the group had been convinced.

Hoi smiled. "Now that that's decided, I propose that Oh and I head into town tonight to find a wagon master. The sooner we're gone from here, the better."

* * *

The evening was warm; the cramped, vermin infested alley was dark and was getting increasingly darker as the minutes slipped away. All around the light became prey to the voracious shadows as the sun set to the west.

"Did you know that I have the power to read minds? In fact, I can tell you what you're thinking right now."

"P-p-please, p-please sir, w-we didn't mean any harm."

Lee continued on as if the terrified man whom he currently had pinned to the wall had not spoken. "What you're thinking right not is '_why oh why did we try to rob this guy_,' am I right?"

His captive, a lanky young man who couldn't have been more than a year or two older than Lee himself tried to spit out an apology good enough to keep him from getting killed by the scar faced stranger.

"L-look man, j-ju-just let me g-go…"

"Go? You want me to let you go," Lee questioned. His voice held neither sympathy nor mercy, just the promise of a slow and agonizing death.

Visibility was poor in the darkened alley, but Lee was standing close enough to the guy to see the tears welling up in his eyes. Whether that was due to fear or to the fact that the tips of Lee's nails hovered a hair's breadth from his eyeballs was an open question.

"You just want to go? What about your friend lying back down there? You gonna leave him?"

The friend being referenced was currently in an unconscious heap further down into the alley, one arm twisted into an unnatural angle. The pinned mugger started to shake; not a good idea with Lee's index and ring fingers being so close to gouging out his eyes. Lee applied a bit more pressure to the man's brow with his middle finger; Falcon's Claw. It was one of Jiji's signature open-handed techniques. It required only three fingers; run the middle finger up the bridge of the nose, use the arched index and ring fingers to drive the enemy's eyes back into his brain.

Lee had once seen Jiji use this technique to rip out another inmate's throat; the scarred vagrant lacked the digital strength to manage such a feat. For now, he would just have to stick with the eyes. The mugger sputtered out more excuses and apologies, but Lee was not really listening to the man at this point. He had already made up his mind that he was not going to murder two men over something as trivial as an attempted mugging. The idiots hadn't even done it right! How are you going to have two muggers but only one knife anyway?

Deciding that he had terrorized his captive enough for one day, Lee quickly removed his hand from in front of the mugger's face. Grabbing the man's hair with his other hand, the scarred vagrant turned and drove the man's face into the opposite wall of the alley. Face met stone wall with a surprisingly wet 'thwack'; Lee released his hold on the hair and allowed the mugger's limp body to sink to the ground.

Lee rifled through the fallen man's pockets and found- to his surprise- that his would be robbers had a fair amount of coins in his purse. Maybe he had misjudged the skills of the pair in the alley; he reconsidered his decision to not kill them, but finally settled on just leaving them be.

Lee casually exited the alley and got back onto the main street. It really was his own fault that somebody had tried to mug him; he had been walking around in the backstreets alone with no apparent idea of where he was going. As he walked down the still busy streets of Onsung, the scarred vagrant idly noted that the street lamps were being lit. His stomach let out a large grumble, stating its displeasure at not having been filled all day long. Lee scanned his surroundings for somewhere to eat. His eyes settled on a relatively clean looking establishment whose sign board simply read '_Bao's Place_.'

Shrugging to himself, Lee made his way towards the tavern. Judging by the smells coming from the place, food was served there; all things considered, it met his criteria. As the scarred vagrant was just about to cross the threshold into 'Bao's Place,' he collided roughly with a patron who was making his way out. The firebender shot a threatening glare at the person who had collided with him- a young man around his own age with wild brown hair, strange miss-matched armor, and a twig which was clenched loosely in his teeth.

"Excuse you friend," Lee sneered with the intention of putting the stranger in his place. The scarred vagrant's graveyard stare was by one which was equally cold and dangerous.

"Same to you, buddy."

The eyes of the two locked, daring the other to look away first.

"Jet," a voice off to their right drew the attention of both of the young men to the doorway of the bar. Two armed figures, a tall young man in a straw coolie hat with a bow and a shorter, armored person of indeterminate gender stood watching the scene. Lee was surprised; he hadn't sensed them coming. The scarred vagrant's eyes quickly snapped back to twig boy- Jet the short one had called him. Jet's face slowly broke into a half-smirk, half-smile.

"There's no problem here Bee. Isn't that right Mr…"

Lee glared at Jet, regarding the other teen warily. "… Jei-Lee. And no… there's no problem here."

They eyed each other for a moment longer before Jet signaled to the two figures which stood in the doorway and the strange trio headed down the street and into the night.

"Be seeing you, Lee."

* * *

The Freedom Fighters had strayed a far away from the slums which they typically frequented and had found themselves in one of Onsung's upscale neighborhoods. Neat rows of family homes enclosed within perimeter walls replaced the garbage strewn streets and crowded tenements of the slums. This was the place where the Freedom Fighters had run their prey to ground.

"Okay Longshot, which house did you follow the forger into?"

The archer stepped past his two companions and pointed down the block. From the light being emitted by the street lights, the trio was able to spy a lone sentry standing guard over the main entrance. Smellerbee toyed with one of her knives.

"One guard. What d'you wanna do Jet?"

"No need for the two of us to do anything yet Bee," Jet replied flippantly. He reached over and patted his taller friend on the shoulder. "If I know my man Longshot, he's already set up a way for us to get in there. Am I right?"

Longshot gave his leader a look which clearly said, 'Of course_. Who do you think I am?_'

Gesturing for his friends to follow him into a nearby alley, Longshot led the way until the trio reached the back of the forger's house. At the back of the forger's place, five precariously balanced wooden crates stood stacked a few feet from the house's perimeter wall. Longshot walked over to a nearby rubbish bin and produced a length of coiled rope from behind it. Thrusting the rope into Jet's hands, the mute archer then pantomimed what he wanted done.

Jet gave a low whistle. "Okay, so the plan is you and Smellerbee are going to hold the crates while I run up your back to the top of the crates. Then from there, I go from the top of the crates to the edge of the roof, lower down this rope and then help you two climb up. That right?"

Longshot nodded in affirmation. Jet cracked his neck. "Alright, let's get to it."

Once Smellerbee and Longshot were in position, the archer signaled to Jet with his head that they were ready to start. The Freedom Fighter leader bounded forward, planting a foot in the center of the crouched archer's back. In two strides he went from Longshot's back, to the top of the crates, to catching hold of the edge of the wall's roof. He struggled to lift himself completely over the edge for a moment. He cursed at how heavy his body was- without his hook swords and armor weighing him down, he could have made it all the way onto the roof with no trouble. After managing to pull himself all the way onto the roof, Jet quickly uncoiled the rope from around his waist and lowered it down to his waiting friends below.

The Freedom Fighters hopped down into the garden and quickly made their way towards the main house. As they made their way through the painstakingly manicured garden towards the veranda, the Jet was struck by the lack of security around this house. Common sense dictated that in a town with as many lowlifes as Onsung, the Forger would think to hire somebody to make sure that he didn't get ripped off. The Freedom Fighters made their way onto the veranda and crouched next to the sliding doors. Taking out their weapons, Jet slid the door open allowing Smellerbee to dart inside. She was soon followed by Longshot, then Jet.

The trio paused, listening intently for any sounds coming through the darkened house. Crouching down on all fours, Smellerbee inched her way from the room and into the hallway. Jet and Longshot stayed put for around two minutes before Smellerbee stuck her shaggy head back into the room; she motioned for the two boys that it was safe to move. Padding softly down the corridor behind the still crouching Smellerbee, Jet and Longshot noticed light coming through one of the paper screen doors located at the end of the hall. As the trio crept closer to the room with the light source they were able to discern two male voices coming from the room.

While curious about the Forger's reasons for entertaining guests at this time of night, Jet and the Freedom Fighters had come here with a set goal in mind, not to eavesdrop. Tapping his companions on the shoulders, ordering them out of the way, the leader of the Freedom Fighters slid the door open and rushed inside, Longshot and Smellerbee at his heals.

"Good evening gentlemen," Jet smirked at the two occupants of the room; the Forger and an elegantly dressed older man whose beard and hair were snow white. The Forger was doing a very good imitation of a flounder- mouth opening and closing wordlessly, eyes bugging out of his head. The man began sweating profusely and his breathing became labored.

"Y-y-yo-y-y-yo…" the Forger stammered unable to pronounce the single syllable around his chattering teeth.

"Us," Jet supplied helpfully. He lazily strolled over to the terrified forger and casually placed one of his hook swords to the man's neck. "You didn't think that we were just going to go away, did you?"

The sound of a throat being cleared drew Jet's attention to the old gentleman who sat scowling under the watchful eyes of Longshot. "Might I ask, young man what you and your friends think you are doing?"

"You're free to ask anything you want. Doesn't mean we have to answer," the head Freedom Fighter replied instantly. The old gentleman narrowed his eyes in displeasure at the boy's rudeness. The old timer shifted his gazed from Jet to Smellerbee who was watching the scene play out in the corner.

"You children obviously are not from Onsung. If you were, you'd have known better than to try to leave the slum and venture into our world."

Jet rolled his eyes, Smellerbee snorted in indignation, while Longshot remained stoic. The old guy was obviously unaware of who held the power in this situation. As old as he was he should have known better than to insult the guy who's holding the sword to your neck.

"You don't control anything here," Jet spat. "You're just a hostage. Bee," he snapped. "Go find something to tie up the old timer."

While Smellerbee ran off to ransack the house to find some restraints for the old man, her leader turned his attention back to the Forger.

"Now, where were we?"

* * *

The great search for a wagon master was underway, but was proceeding without much success. Hoi, Silent Oh, and a swollen faced Joo-Hwan- who had insisted on coming along over the protests of his wife- had scoured the worst dives in Onsung and rubbed shoulders with the town's criminal underclass but had yet to achieve any results. The difficulty wasn't in finding a wagon master; Onsung was lousy with mercenaries who were willing to take the job. The problem lay in finding one who was both honest _and_ cheap.

It was getting late into the evening and the three refugees were both emotionally and physically drained; they decided to chase down one final lead before giving up for the day. Arriving at a bustling tavern called 'Bao's Place,' a nervous Hoi led the two other men purposefully towards the bar. Slapping the countertop to gain the barkeeper's attention Hoi barked, "We're looking for a woman."

The barkeep jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "The working girls are upstairs," he said nonchalantly before whipping a rag out of his trouser pocket and using it to scrub down a glass. Hoi turned red up to his ears and sputtered. "N-not that kind of woman; we were told that a woman who worked as a wagon master and charged cheap rates frequented this establishment."

Realization dawned quickly on the barkeep, "Ooooohhh, you're talking about old Sad Eyes. Yeah, that's her down at the end of the bar."

The man pointed to his left down the bar. Sure enough there was a woman sitting alone draining the contents of large bottle. Looking at each other apprehensively, the refugees approached the drinking woman. Hoi, acting as spokesman for the group, advanced on the woman known as Sad Eyes.

Given the lines on her face, Sad Eyes was a woman who looked to be in her late thirties or early forties. Her black hair was streaked with grey and much of it was tied back into a topknot and worn in a style that was typically sported by men. Her sleeveless top revealed that her muscles were firm and toned; an elaborate tattoo ran the entire length of her left arm from wrist to shoulder. The most striking feature of the woman was her perpetually drooping eyelids.

"Excuse me," he stated. "We're in the market for a wagon master and we heard that you were dependable and that your rates were cheap. Are you interested in listening to our offer?"

The woman turned her droopy eyed gaze on the three refugees, wiping a trickle of liquor from her mouth with her arm. She swayed lightly in her seat; Joo-Hwan wrinkled his nose at her smell. She stank of alcohol and several days without a proper bath.

"….I'm always interested in gettin' paid," she slurred.


	10. Chapter 10

_It took a good minute, but it's finally done. I thought that being out of school would give me more time to write, but work is just eating up every minute I've got. Anyway, enough with my problems, here's chapter 10._

Chapter 10

The rays of the early morning sun squeezed their way between the narrow slits of the shutters, transferring their warmth to the face of the woman lying sprawled on a thin straw mattress lying on the floor. Sad Eyes grimaced in her sleep as the first of the sunbeams alighted across her nose, disturbing the delicate equilibrium that was sleep. The first sunbeam was soon joined by one of its siblings and together they worked to heat up the woman's flesh enough to shake her from her slumber. The minutes ticked by; more sunbeams collected on the woman's face. Sad Eyes cracked a bleary eye open and was immediately blinded by the light which was now streaming through her window directly into her face.

The mercenary sat upright on her meager bed, wiping the crumbs from her eyes and stretching the crinks out of her spine. It had been four days since her meeting with those greenhorns in 'Bao's Place' where she had accepted the responsibility to lead their party of refugees to Lake Pilho. Sad Eyes had readily agreed to take the job and had been paid seventy stones up front. A steady stream of profanities spewed forth from her mouth, cursing all alcoholic drinks and the people who made them to the lowermost realms of the Spirit World. She must have been pretty drunk to have accepted this job for a paltry seventy stones. Sure, she had a reputation for charging less than other wagon masters, but seventy stones? That was just an idiotically low price.

The three men had told her that their group would be ready to head out in six days so as it stood right now; she had six days to find a few additional hands to assist her in protecting the refugees. Sad Eyes pulled her top over her shoulders and felt around on the floor next to her bed until she felt her hand connect with what she'd been searching for; a polished wooden box with intricate designs carved into the surface. Popping open the top, Sad Eyes emptied the contents of the box- a broken shard of mirror glass and a porcelain comb- onto her mattress. As the mercenary combed the tangles out of her hair, she tried to think of a way to convince some halfway decent warriors to come along with her and the refugees.

'_What am I gonna say_,' she wondered idly to herself. What was she going to say, '_I need a few good recruits to go on a dangerous job through open country all the way to Lake Pilho. And guess what; there's hardly any money in it for you_.'

Sad Eyes would have laughed if there was anything funny about it. The lowlifes in this town were not interested in taking charity jobs like this. In all honesty, she wouldn't have taken this job if she had been sober at the time it was offered; of all the things that she was, a philanthropist was not one of them.

"Maybe the trick is to find somebody who's wasted," the mercenary mumbled to herself. Whatever the case, the fact was that Sad Eyes had accepted the job and she had taken their money; she was contractually bound to perform this service to the refugees, no matter what. The tattooed mercenary picked herself up off the ground, grabbing her sword belt and sheath from where they leaned on the wall on her way out. Buckling the curved blade onto her hip, the mercenary stomped the way downstairs to the first story of the building, deftly avoiding her landlord on her way out of the front door.

"Now… where am I going to go," Sad Eyes mumbled to herself as she walked along the dusty streets of Onsung. It was still fairly early in the day. Sad Eyes put her mind to work thinking of ways to solve her predicament. Since the pay for this job was shit, she would have to find someone who was one of three things; desparate, crazy, or out of their right minds. A sudden idea occurred to the mercenary. A lot of mercenaries- herself included- were very fond of alcohol. And having survived more than a few murderous benders in her time, Sad Eyes knew that this time of day was when plenty of overeager drinkers would be waking up with hangovers.

Since drunks never strayed too far from places where they could get a drink, then logically there should be a few easy marks in the many inns and rooming houses which ringed the bar district. Who knows; maybe she could catch someone.

* * *

During his journeys, Lee had learned many things about life and about himself. The newest things that he had learned were that he was a very angry drunk and that he was an even angrier person when he was hung over. Lee had never _really_ been drunk before. He had drunk liquor before but he had always imbibed expensive smooth wines and he had always had someone there to stop him before he even got mildly tipsy. That, plus the fact that firebenders had a notoriously high tolerance for alcohol had always protected him from the horrors of the hangover.

Last night for want of anything else to do, Lee had gone to a nearby bar. He had certainly not gone there with the intention of getting piss drunk, but the scarred vagrant felt that as long as he was there, he might as well sample some of the barkeep's wares. What had started off as few cups of cheap wine had evolved over time into him knocking back multiple shots of what the barkeeper had called a '_Blind Bandit'_. Lee had hazy memories of himself being involved in a drinking game of some sort, but after that his memories became disjointed and he could only guess at what had happened during the rest of the night.

Things must have gone sour with someone though, because when he had awoken this morning he was wearing a bruise on his forehead which hadn't been there the night before. The scarred vagrant regarded it as a small miracle that he had managed to stumble back to the squalid house where he had been sleeping for the past few nights. Lee sat curled into a ball in a corner.

The rooming house was, in actuality, a produce warehouse which had fallen into disuse. With the recent influx of war refugees flooding into Onsung, the owners of the property had had the bright idea that they could make a lot more money by selling the space to desperate migrants in need of a place to sleep. For a few pennies a night, a refugee got his very own space on a hard earthen floor with three hundred other people in as dire straits as you yourself. They didn't provide even the basest of creature comforts or amenities, but they did provide a roof and locked doors to keep out the riff-raff.

Lee gritted his teeth against the horrendous pounding in his temples and choked down the vomit that wanted to come shooting out of his throat. He glared at everyone else in the room with hatred; how dare those bastards walk around like everything was normal when his head was about to fall off his shoulders. Fuck them! FUCK THEM ALL!

Lee emitted a low groan; apparently anger only made the headache worse. He swore on his mother's soul that he would never, ever drink again.

The scarred vagrant had decided that the worst thing about being hung over was the increased sensitivity to light and sound. When he had woken up that morning the sound of the hundreds of people who had been jammed into the confines of the warehouse turned rooming house had felt next to unbearable.

Lee stumbled outside to escape; bad idea. Not only was it louder on the outside, the sunlight stung his eyes and amplified the pain in his head. He had quickly retreated back into the rooming house, curled up in a corner and decided that the only thing he could do would be to try and wait it out. Unfortunately, the universe decided that it would once again screw him out of having a moment's peace.

The shrill crying of a child reverberated inside of the sleeping area. The child was quickly followed by the irate shouting of a grown man yelling "Shut up," in a hoarse voice. Lee swung his eyes in the direction of the disturbance. A tall, skinny man had a little girl- she couldn't have been over four years old- by the hair and was yelling at her.

"I said to shut up you little bitch! Shut up right now!"

The girl, however, continued to wail at the top of her lungs, uprooting the string bean man even more. Lee gripped his bag a little tighter as he watched the thin man draw back one of his long arms.

"I told you to shut up," String Bean yelled in fury, bringing his hand down on the girl's face with a resounding smack. The dry sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed inside of the converted warehouse and, to Lee's surprise, everyone really did shut up. Then the little girl started crying out in pain and fear. String Bean did not like that; he flew into a rage and began beating the small child with his boney, malnourished fists and shouting at her to shut up more loudly than ever.

The thin man's violent actions provoked a response- even more noise- from the surrounding crowd as the bystanders began shouting; some for the landlords to come and break the two up; some urging other bystanders to help the girl; some shouting at the man to take his business outside, away from the rest of them. Lee gripped his bag a little tighter. He could feel it, his hatred and rage and disgust at mankind filling up the pounding space in between his ears, threatening to split his whole skull open in a matter of minutes if he didn't _do something _to stop it.

Lee lurched up from his spot in the corner and stomped his way towards the place where String Bean was still beating the girl, roughly elbowing the spectators of the assault out of his way. He reached for the thin man's queue, grabbing the waist length strand of braided hair and yanked it with enough force to send String Bean crashing to the floor. An excited murmur radiated through the crowd as the thin man jumped to his feet to confront his attacker.

"WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE," String Bean yelled. Lee winced involuntarily; the pounding in his head had reached an all time high after that last outburst. He just wanted them all to _shut up_. String 

Bean's lips were moving; his lips were moving, but the firebender could not even hear what the man was saying. All that the scarred vagabond could hear was the blood pounding in his ears_._

Before String Bean could even register what was happening, Lee's right hand shot from his side to clamp down on the thin man's crotch. The other man's animalistic squeal was oddly gratifying to the firebender; he gave the family jewels a sharp twist. String Bean's voice went up another few octaves; Lee clamped his free hand over his captive's mouth.

"Whatever problems you have with that girl, I don't care," he spat, loud enough for the surrounding people to hear every word he said. He spoke slowly so that nobody would miss a word. "I had a bad night. My head is killing me. If I hear you yelling like that again," Lee squeezed String Bean's nuts a little tighter, to emphasize how serious he was, "I'm going to turn you into a woman."

The vagabond took the thin man's muffled whimper as a sign that he had gotten the message. Feeling his point had been made, Lee released String Bean, leaving the man to melt into the floor, cradling his poor, abused balls. Where he had had to shove people out of his way before, people all but scurried out of Lee's way now; he had almost made it back to his corner when he felt a rough hand grab his elbow. Lee turned his head to see who would dare to approach him after the demonstration he had just given.

He came face to face with a woman whom he had never seen in the rooming house before. '_Her grip's pretty strong,_' he thought. He quickly sized her up; hair in the advanced stages of turning from brown to grey; judging by the calloused hands and strong grip she was used to working with her hands. Farmer? Artisan? The firebender's eyes traced the tattoos that extended all the way up her arm to her exposed shoulder, to her neck.

'_Not likely, not with those'_. Rough, faded ink; birds with only one wing, demons missing their left eyes; he recognized those symbols. You only got those kinds of tattoos from one place. "The four kingdoms divide the multitudes…"

The tattooed woman raised a lazy eyebrow at the young man's words but her response was immediate and unfaltering. "…but the blades of the host are innumerable."

The mysterious woman released her grip on the young man's elbow. "Wasn't expecting to find a brother of mine in here, guess it must be my lucky day."

"All depends on what you want," replied irritably. His head was still pounding, he still felt like he was going to vomit every other minute and he was in no mood to be holding long conversations with people he'd never even met before. He wouldn't have even been giving this lady the time of day if she hadn't been one of the Myriad.

The woman shrugged her shoulders but nodded her head in understanding; just because they were part of the same society didn't make them buddies. "I'm actually here looking to hire some people to protect a group of refugees traveling to Lake Pilho. Interested?"

Lee squinted at the woman. "Why do you want me," he asked, not altogether sure that this woman wasn't a bounty hunter after his head and that this job offer wasn't some kind of trap. He knew that his suspicions were farfetched, but a healthy degree of paranoia could save a man's life.

"You defended that little girl," the nameless woman said flatly. "That plus that fact that you crushed that guy's nuts with your bare hands proves to me that you care about little children and you're not shy about hurting somebody. The perfect qualities to have for this job, far as I'm concerned."

Lee stared at the woman in annoyance; if she had been watching the whole scene then she should have known that he was in no condition to do anything besides sit in his corner and wait until the throbbing in his head went away. The scarred vagrant told her as much.

"Go find somebody else," Lee said dismissively. He turned to head into his corner when he heard the woman say, "I can get rid of that hangover for you. I do that for you, you consider my offer."

That got the firebender's attention. Lee paused and turned slowly, his one eyebrow raised in curiosity. The scarred vagrant thought about it; he was only trying to be in Onsung long enough to hustle up some money before heading south. Lake Pilho was to the south and traveling with a group was bound to be safer that traveling on his own. Getting paid for honest work was also a much safer choice than his original plan- robbing somebody- would have been. But most importantly, she said that she could cure his hangover.

"You make the pounding stop, I'm in."

"Excellent," the woman smirked crookedly at the young man and extended a hand. "I'm Sad Eyes."

* * *

Jet eased his head around a corner; he saw two Earth Kingdom soldiers at the end of the alley, nosing through piles of rotting garbage. One was carrying wanted posters displaying the faces of Smellerbee and Longshot and himself. The Freedom Fighter cursed; he pulled his head back around the corner and shook it sadly. "We can't go this way either guys."

"Lame fucks are trying to box us in," Smellerbee muttered bitterly.

"I'd say that they're doing better than trying," Jet replied nonchalantly. Smellerbee shot him a dirty look; this was no time for their leader to start acting like an idiot. "Jet, this is serious! We need a plan."

Despite what his subordinate might have thought, the leader of the Freedom Fighters was very much aware of just how serious their situation was. The trio had spent the past few days skulking around in shadowy alleys like the one in which they were currently cowering because someone had mobilized the local Earth Kingdom army garrison and sent them on a hunt for the three Freedom Fighters. Jet was certain that the Forger did not have the influence to set two companies of Earth Kingdom soldiers on them; it must have been that old man who had done it.

'_Well, the old man did say that we would end up regretting it_,' Jet thought sourly. He poked his head around the corner; yep, they were still there. The one with the posters was waving them in the face of a beggar woman.

"No chance of going back the way we came," Jet asked. Longshot shook his head- that way was effectively blocked off. Jet sighed in frustration; as things stood right now, the only way they were getting out of there was to cut through a couple dozen Earth Kingdom soldiers, something that the Freedom Fighter was less than eager to try. Jet started towards a narrow space between the buildings in front of them. "Looks like we'll just have to go deeper into the city then."

Smellerbee scrunched up her face and muttered a childish 'ah man' while Longshot furrowed his brow in displeasure. There had been a complete lack of city planning when Onsung was founded; people just put houses and businesses wherever they had found space. As a result, the older parts of the town had evolved over time into a complex maze of alleys, side streets, narrow walkways, dead ends and hidden niches. As a result, Onsung wasn't a very big city but it had plenty of places for a clever outlaw to hide. Another result, however, was that it was extremely easy for someone who lacked an intimate knowledge of the slums to become hopelessly lost.

The trio had used the maze-like qualities of the backstreets to avoid their pursuers, but in doing so they had become lost themselves. Just this morning- after a night of stumbling around in the gutters- the Freedom Fighters had accidentally made it back to a part of town they recognized. Now it looked as if they would have to get lost all over again. Jet managed to squeeze his body between the narrow space between the buildings when he heard Smellerbee's urgent voice.

"Jet, hold up a minute. Something's happening with those soldiers."

Her leader extricated himself from the space between the buildings and hurried over to where his two friends crouched peering around the corner. "What is it, something good," Jet asked eagerly. The tomboy shushed her leader before peeking back around the corner. "I'm not really sure but something's going on down there."

Jet saw that the soldiers had moved on from the beggar woman and were questioning someone else; another woman with grey hair and an extensively tattooed left arm. The mysterious woman was in what appeared to be a rather animated conversation with the soldiers. After a few seconds of watching, Jet noticed something odd.

Every once in a while, the woman would toss her head and whip he long hair around. That in itself wasn't anything unusual, but to the Freedom Fighter it seemed like she was performing the action much too frequently. He watched closely; she would stop speaking, and then toss her head when the soldiers responded to whatever it was she said. Over and over and over again.

'_Is… she trying to signal us or something?_'

Acting on impulse, Jet stuck one of his hands from behind the wall and waggled his hand in the air. Smellerbee and Longshot looked at him like he was crazy- Jet couldn't really blame them. He was risking 

their freedom- possibly their lives- on a completely baseless gut feeling that the mysterious woman at the end of the alley was trying to help them. A few tense seconds passed without incident until the two soldiers went running out of the alley and into the sun brightened street.

Seeing the soldiers leave the alley, Jet sprang from behind the wall and approached the woman who had saved all of their skins. "Thanks for the help ma'am; that was a tight spot we were in."

The mysterious woman smirked crookedly, her drooping eyes betraying nothing. "Oh, I know. You must have pissed somebody with a lot of pull off pretty bad if they were able to get the soldiers off their lazy asses. And now…"

She stretched her arms over her head, pushing her ample breasts forward; the young Freedom Fighter's eyes immediately lowered to examine her assets. "… What say you do something to help me?"

Outwardly, Jet put on his best winning smile; inwardly however, he went on his guard. Of course nothing in this world ever comes for free. "What do you need help with," Jet asked innocently; it was much more polite than saying '_Who are you and what the hell do you want us for._' He was young, but he was sharp enough to not jump headfirst into an unknown situation when he could avoid it. The mysterious woman seemed to catch on pretty quickly that it was going to be pointless to try bullshitting him; alright, straight talk it was then.

"Before we get to that, don't you think that we should include your little friends in this discussion," the woman said neutrally, looking past Jet and sown into the shadows of the alley.

"If they don't like the favor, then they'll let me know," a steely eyed Jet replied. The woman shrugged as if to say that it made no difference to her how they worked things out between themselves.

"Alright; the situation is this. Right now the three of you are the most wanted criminals in Onsung. I don't know what you did and I don't really care, _but_, while you're here you'll have cops, soldiers, and every idiot looking to collect the price on your heads coming after you. In short; you need to get out of town and fast."

The mysterious woman paused to let her words sink in. The young man's face betrayed any hint that he was interested in her summary in his group's situation. "You still haven't said a word about what it is you want," Jet stated. The woman sucked her teeth.

"It just so happens that I need some help leading a group of refugees who're heading south to Lake Pilho. You need to get out of Onsung, I've got a means of supplying that way out. When we get behind the walls, you guys help me with the refugees until we get to where we're going. Good deal, right?"

Jet looked thoughtful for a moment, chewing on the end of his twig as he pondered the woman's proposal. A minute ticked by before the Freedom Fighter turned into face the shadows deeper into the alley.

"Guys… she's got a proposition for us."

* * *

A full moon hung in the cloudless night sky. It shone with a brilliance that was rarely seen in a place like Onsung. It was type of moon- big and beautiful, accented oh so perfectly by the backdrop of millions upon billions of twinkling stars- that one found being depicted in fairytale romances. Had Jet been of a mind to look up into the night sky, he would have undoubtedly found the scene awe inspiring. However, things being as they were, the head Freedom Fighter was too busy observing phenomena of a less heavenly nature. For the fourth time that evening somebody had grabbed a big handful of his ass; for the fourth time that evening he had had to fight the urge to disembowel the offending party with his bare hands. Instead of acting on his violent impulses as he desperately- _desperately_- wanted to, Jet instead quietly removed the "gentleman's" hand and concentrated on putting the right amount of sway in his hips.

_(Two Hours Ago)_

_Lime Street; Onsung's red light district. A bright and bustling street lined on both sides with teahouse brothels, gambling parlors and opium dens. Like nowhere else, Lime Street brought the people of the town together. Rich men rubbed shoulders with beggars; townspeople caroused with refugees. For a few short hours all of them were equal in their united pursuit of cheap thrills. The Freedom Fighters had followed the mysterious mercenary behind one of the more upscale whorehouses in the area. _

"_What are we doing back here," a very agitated Smellerbee asked. She hated being around places like this. _

"_I'm engineering the means of you escape kid," Sad Eyes replied flatly. The mercenary knocked on the back door of the brothel; three quick knocks, a pause, then two more knocks. A small flap in the door opened in the door to briefly reveal a pair of eyes under several layers of mascara. The door opened all the way to reveal a woman around Sad Eye's age who was dressed in a kimono which exposed her shoulders and an ample amount of cleavage. _

"_Well, well, look who decides to show up after all this time," the woman said snidely, crossing her arms and glaring at the mercenary with distaste. _

_Sad Eyes smirked nastily. "Nice to see you too Ming, how's tricks?"_

"_The tricks are getting their money's worth," the hooker replied. "So, what are you here for," she looked over at the three young people that Sad Eyes had with her. "And who're the kids?"_

_Sad Eyes waved her hand dismissively. "The kids are cool. As to why I'm here; this place owes me a few favors and I've come to call one in."_

"_People like you only come around when you want something. Fuckin' leech," Ming said, rolling her eyes. Despite the harshness of her words, she stepped out of the doorframe, allowing the visitors to enter the building. "I don't like this. You still haven't told us the plan yet Sad Eyes," Jet said as he followed behind the mercenary. _

"_Bitch, bitch, whine, whine," Sad Eyes muttered to herself. "Just be thankful that it's laundry day."_

(The Present)

The leader of the Freedom Fighters glared at the woman responsible for the loss of his manhood. "Sad Eyes," he muttered the name as if it was the vilest curse he knew. The mercenary turned and looked at the Freedom Fighter, a nasty smirk on her lips. "What is it sweetness?"

By some miracle, Jet did not explode on the smug mercenary. "This is never going to work, we're gonna get caught."

Sad Eyes huffed in indignation at the thought of one of _her_ plans failing. "Nonsense; just play it cool and act whore-ish. We'll be through the town gates in no time flat."

Jet was about to retort when Longshot- the only one out of the group not dressed as a working girl- placed a steadying hand on his leader's shoulder, telling him that further argument was useless at this point. Jet quickly shrugged off the taller teen's shoulder. "Aw, fuck you too Longshot," Jet spat. "Too masculine my ass..."

While Sad Eyes and the Freedom Fighters had been receiving their makeovers in Lime Street, Longshot had been left out.

_(One Hour, Forty Two Minutes Ago)_

"_Hey, hey," Jet yelled. "Why the hell do I have to go in drag while he," he pointed an irate finger at the archer, "can just wear normal clothes? Why can't I be the eunuch?" _

"_Are you serious," the working girl who was currently struggling to comb all of the knots out of Smellerbee's hair. "He's way too tall and looks way too much like a man. There's no way he'll pass."_

"_But I don't look anything like a woman," Jet spat. _

_The hooker laughed in his face, causing the normally unflappable Freedom Fighter to flush red in embarrassment. "That's true, but you'd make a perfect ladyboy."_

(Present)

The mute archer gave his leader a look which clearly said, 'that's _what you get pretty boy._' Jet mumbled something inaudible and went back to concentrating on putting the correct amount of sway into his hips as he walked.

"Just relax and bear it Jet," a gussied up Smellerbee said to her fuming friend. "We've only gotta do this until we get to the camp." Jet scowled but kept his eyes forward and his rear end swinging. All of that was easy for her to say, she actually looked kind of good in that getup. He wasn't alone in that sentiment; both Jet and Longshot had been shocked at just how feminine Smellerbee could look when she cleaned herself up.

"Look sharp and slutty girls, we're going to be at the gate once we get to the end of this block," Sad Eyes announced. "Once we turn the corner, you three wait while I collect the last member of our little party."

The Freedom Fighters nodded in acknowledgement. Upon rounding the end of the block, the trio took up position next to a flophouse while Sad Eyes hurried on down the street.

Silence.

"Jet…" Smellerbee said slowly. "If you keep scowling like that, you'll never get any customers."

* * *

"Yo handsome!"

A voice from above said; Lee shifted his gaze from the ground to trace the source of the voice he recognized as the one belonging to the female mercenary with the weird name. Expecting to see the same woman that he had met just a day ago, the firebender was surprised to find himself being accosted by one of Onsung's many of ladies of the evening. His ever present scowl went from annoyed to confused. "Why are you dressed like that," he asked suspiciously.

Sad Eyes twitched her hips suggestively and said in a low, sultry tone, "Why do you ask? Is it giving you ideas?"

Lee somehow managed to fight down the blush rising in his cheeks _and_ retain his scowl; quite the feet. Sighing at the young man's refusal to be flustered by her antics, Sad Eyes quickly explained the situation. "Not a problem for you right?"

Lee scoffed as he bent over to collect his pack and swords from the ground. "Makes no difference to me how many chumps you had to queer out," he patted his pack. "I've got my papers right here."

The two set off down the street towards the place where Sad Eyes had said she had left her other recruits. As Sad Eyes and Lee moved closer to a seedy looking flophouse, the scarred vagrant saw that- as promised- there were three people waiting outside of the building. There was a petite girl, a tall eunuch in a long coat whose face was largely hidden by the brim of the straw coolie hat atop his head, and a… what?

From a distance the second tallest figure had looked like a woman. Lee found, however, that the person he had taken to be a woman was looking less and less feminine the closer he got. Most disturbing of all was the fact that he felt he recognized the shemale from somewhere. He examined the transvestite's face closely. The subject of Lee's study broke off his conversation with the short girl and looked at the two approaching figures. Lee and the ladyboy locked eyes, realization dawning at the same time.

"Lee?"

"Twig boy?"

Jet looked ready to murder the other young man. '_That bastard didn't even bother to remember my name? Not like it's hard; there aren't that many Jets walking around._'

"Hey, you're that guy," Smellerbee exclaimed in surprise.

"You remember me," Lee asked.

"Hard to forget somebody who's had half their face fried off," the small girl replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Sad Eyes that it was time for her to step in before anybody's feelings got hurt.

"Okay, well it's great that all you guys know each other. This way we don't have to waste time on introductions." The mercenary hustled the strange group up to the gate Lee stepped forward first and showed his papers to the guard on duty and was quickly waved through. Sad Eyes and the disguised Freedom Fighters made to pass right through the gate when they were stopped by a guard.

"Halt, you women can't just go on through like that! I need to see your papers!"

The Freedom Fighters froze, exchanging sidelong glances while discreetly reaching for the weapons concealed beneath their clothes. Sad Eyes, however, kept on walking as if she hadn't heard the eager young soldier at all.

"Hey… hey lady, didn't you hear me? I need to see your papers!"

The guard caught the mercenary by her arm; Sad Eyes quickly turned on the man and started shouting at him at the top of her lungs.

"Get yer hands offa me ya runt. You wanna touch then you gotta pay!"

The young guard blushed rose red and tried to shush Sad Eyes. "Look lady, I'm just trying to do my job. If you haven't got papers then you're gonna need to come with me to the blockhouse and…"

"Oh, I see now," Sad Eyes snorted derisively. "Take me out back for a lil' freebie, huh? That you plan Mr. Officer? I suck you off, you let me through?"

The mercenary made absolutely no attempt to keep her voice down; her antics were beginning to attract spectators. The Freedom Fighters watched, captivated by the sheer trashiness of Sad Eyes' performance as one guard, then another left their posts to see what the problem was.

"You're getting in the way of my business, that's the problem," Sad Eyes screeched indignantly.

"Ah for Spirit's sake Biu, just let'er through," one of the two older guards snapped at the youngest guard. "But Sarge," Biu pleaded. "The Captain said that we've got to check everybody coming in and going out; orders from on high he said!"

The "Sarge" blew a raspberry to show the kid just what he thought of orders from on high and the people who gave them. "Just leave her alone; hookers come back and forth to work the shanty town all the time."

While the guards became increasingly embroiled in their argument, Sad Eyes signaled to the Freedom Fighters that now would be a good time for them to hurry through the gate before cooler heads prevailed. In need of no further prompting, the three walked, calmly but quickly through the gates. They found Lee sitting on the ground a short distance from the gates.

"How'd it go," the scarred vagrant asked, his tone indicating that he really didn't care much about how hard of a time they had had.

"We made it through," Jet said simply. He was already using the arm of his kimono to wipe the makeup off of his face but just ended up smearing it all across his face. The four did not have long to wait before Sad Eyes emerged from the other side of the gates.

"Now that that's over with, let's get going."

* * *

Joo-Hwan was restless; the refugees had packed up all of their possessions, they had broken camp; they were ready to go as soon as the sun came up over the horizon. And their protection was nowhere to be found. A hundred possible scenarios played through the farmer's mind, each one more horrible than the last. Something bad was going to happen, he could feel it down in his soul.

"Hey, somebody's coming! I think it's the mercenaries we hired!"

Joo-Hwan sprang to his feet eagerly. They'd come, by the Spirits! How silly he was to be worried; they'd paid their money so of course they'd show up. He could rest easier now; he could go tell Mikan once he saw…

The farmer felt his stomach drop; he saw them. Their protection was a little girl, some scruffy scar-faced kid, a eunuch and a drag queen.

"We are so screwed."


	11. Chapter 11

_This one was hard to finish. I had the next chapter just about finished, but after finishing this one I'm really considering just redoing chapter 12 from scratch. Regardless I'm still pretty satisfied with how this chapter turned out. Let me know what you think of it please._

Chapter 11

"So… Sad Eyes; that certainly a very, um… interesting name."

The woman in question turned her perpetually leaden gaze on Mikan; Joo-Hwan's wife recoiled in spite of herself. The dispassionate mercenary cocked an eyebrow at that action but said nothing.

"Um…………. what," the mercenary replied to Mikan's statement, not quite sure what the younger woman was getting at. The farmer's wife became increasingly flustered under the mercenary's inspection; she really was no good at making small talk.

"I, uh, wh-well, that is… I was just kind of wondering; what kind of name is Sad Eyes?"

The mercenary stared at the fidgety homemaker. "An assumed one," Sad Eyes replied honestly. She commended herself for not sounding as condescending as she usually was; quite the feat in Sad Eyes' own modest opinion. "I think it fits me pretty well, don't you think?"

Mikan waved her arms in what was intended to be an apologetic gesture.

"Sorry, sorry; I wasn't trying to offend you or anything like that," the farmer's wife said quickly. "I was just… I mean, it's been like five days since we left and nobody's really been talking and I was kinda curious about all of you guys who came to protect us and… and…"

It gradually occurred to Mikan that she was rambling. Sad Eyes watched in bemusement as the woman suddenly burst into tears. The farmer's wife apologized, bowed, and then skittered back towards the main body of refugees walking behind them. Sad Eyes shifted in the saddle of her ostrich horse to watch the women go, scratching her prematurely graying head at the sight.

'The hell was that all about,' the mercenary thought to herself. '_I sure did pick some weird ones this time._'

Sad Eyes scanned the surrounding hills for any signs of movement or that they were being watched. In the waning light of the day, it was hard for Sad Eyes to pick out anything which was not supposed to be where it was supposed to be. Wheeling the ostrich horse around to face the refugees, the mercenary broke from her position at the point of the formation and rode back to the main body of refugees. The column of people halted as their wagon master rode into their midst.

"Alright, this is where we'll be stopping for the day. You all know what to do."

As the refugees busied themselves with making camp, grabbing their gear from out of the bed of the wagon and taking materials from their rucksacks- Sad Eyes decided to check on her underlings. Climbing down off of the back of the ostrich-horse and handing the reigns of the beast to one of the refugees. Adjusting her sword higher on her hips, the mercenary sauntered over to the spot where the three Freedom Fighters had gathered and were relaxing.

"How's it going you three," she asked.

Jet shrugged and took his twig out of his mouth. "S'okay. It's been easy enough so far; it's been kinda boring actually."

Smellerbee punched Jet in the arm. "Way you're talking; anybody'd think that you wanted bandits to attack us. Far as I'm concerned, boring is good."

Longshot nodded in agreement with the tomboy's sentiment. Jet put on a thoroughly convincing- yet obviously false- sad face. He shook his head slowly and scratched the back of his shaggy head.

"Guys, come on. You know me better than that. The refugees getting attacked is the very last thing I want. But," he turned his head to look at Sad Eyes. "From the way people talked in Onsung about how dangerous the roads were, I _was_ expecting something to have happened by now."

Smellerbee cracked her back and laid herself out on the ground. "So we got lucky," she said around a yawn. "That happens to us every once in a while, y'know. You should just thank the spirits that nobody is watching us and be done with it."

"Oh no, somebody's definitely watching us," Sad Eyes remarked lazily. As one the reclining Freedom Fighter's heads turned to look at the mercenary. "None of us noticed anything," Jet said.

"Yeah, well neither did I," Sad Eyes said flatly. "But I've played this game for a long time and my gut is telling me that some dirty hill rats are looking down on us right now."

* * *

Lee pulled his sleeping roll out of his pack and rolled it out on the ground; the vagrant indulged in one of his rare smiles. The money which he had not frittered away on food, alcohol, or shelter had been spent to buy this essential, yet easily overlooked, traveler's item. In addition to having a comfortable place to sleep, he didn't have to keep watch that night, which meant that he could get a full night's rest; Lee intended to make the most of it.

The firebender freed himself of his shit- the night was warm enough already and he didn't want to start sweating- and was about to crawl under the covers when he heard someone approaching him from behind. He turned to see Sad Eyes standing there with her arms crossed.

"What is it," he asked. As a means of response, Sad Eyes just kept standing there and looking at the shirtless young man.

"…Nice ink," the mercenary said simply. "Rohilala's a pretty weird choice, if you don't mind me saying."

"What is it," Lee repeated, uninterested in making small talk with the mercenary. She was cutting in on his precious, irreplaceable sleep time. Besides, the vagrant was fairly certain that Sad Eyes hadn't come up to him just to compare tattoos.

"We're having a group meeting; I've got some things to say to everybody. You should probably throw on a shirt or something like that- mixed company and all that."

The mercenary turned on her heel and walked away Lee gave an annoyed grunt, but nevertheless picked himself up off of the ground and made his way over towards where the refugee campfires sat clustered together. He kept his shirt off though- the second that Sad Eyes got finished with saying whatever it was she needed to say, he was going straight back to his sleeping bag. Modesty be damned!

Sad Eyes had gathered the refugees into a circle with herself at the center. Lee plopped down next to Longshot; the mute archer nodded in greeting- the scarred vagrant nodded back. The archer was very easy to get along with. Lee noticed that some of the refugees were sending him scandalized looks; he rolled his eyes. As if he would care about offending the polite sensibilities of these sheep-hens after all that he had been through.

After giving her audience some time to get settled, Sad Eyes decided that it was time to get started. "Okay, now that everybody's here we can get down to it. As everybody already knows, we've been traveling for five days and in that time we haven't seen any sign of the bad guys. Well… expect that to change starting tomorrow."

Everyone gathered around the fire perked up when they heard that. "How can you be so sure about that," one of the refugee women asked the skepticism very evident in her voice. Her statement was met by a general mummer of agreement that Lee found himself a part of; he had to admit that he was a bit curious as to why Sad Eyes sounded so sure that the bandits would choose now to pounce on them.

"I can be so sure because I know the country around here and you people don't," the mercenary deadpanned. She drew he sword; burying the point in the ground, she began scratching out a crude map of the terrain on the ground.

"You all came to Onsung from the east, right? Well, Lake Pilho is directly to the south from Onsung- the terrain's hilly and there isn't much in the way of vegetation, but it's not too rough so the going's relatively easy. The problems are going to start when we enter here," she stabbed a box in her crude map that stood on the path between Onsung and Lake Pilho.

"This, good people, is what folk around here refer to as _The Maw_."

Almost as one Lee, Jet, Smellerbee, and Longshot emitted frustrated sighs. The scarred vagrant shot a questioning eye at the Freedom Fighters who all sported scowls which were almost as vicious as his own.

"Shit," Lee cursed, deciding to forego nonverbal communication and just give a voice to his bad mood. If experience had taught him one thing, it was that anything with a nickname like _The Maw_ was going to be trouble.

"Um, what is the Maw," a very sheepish Mikan asked. Sad Eyes lifted a lazy eyebrow and turned her attention to the farmer's wife. "The Maw? The Maw is death trap given to us mortals by the great spirits who shaped the earth. It's a twisting maze of ridges, ravines, little box canyons- easy to fall into, hard as hell to climb out of- vicious man eating beasts, poisonous lizards and lots of other nasty shit I forgot to mention. It's a raider's paradise; bandits love it because there're so many places for them to hide and it's real easy to spook a group of spooked travelers like you into a dead end."

The refugees stood rigid in frightened silence; Mikan looked like she was about to wet herself. Lee rolled his eyes at their behavior; they were the ones who had asked the question. It wasn't Sad Eyes' fault if they didn't like the answers they'd got. A small part of the scarred vagrant's brain, one that was of a much more empathetic vein, felt for the refugees. They had gambled their lives on reaching Lake Pilho and from what their wagon master had just said, the odds were stacked against them much more than they had originally thought. Lee's ever present scowl deepened; bad things were going to happen. He could feel it in his belly.

Smellerbee raised her hand. "Look, we get that the Maw's a bad place. But, if by some chance nothing pops out to maim, rape, or eat us, how long would it take to get to the other side?"

Sad Eyes sheathed her sword. The mercenary cocked her head to one side as she considered the Freedom Fighter's question. "Mmm-mmm? Four days with a group this size, I guess."

Lee toyed with the fuzz on his chin that was steadily maturing into full fledged facial hair. Four days; he could make it through four days. All he had to do was keep his head on his shoulders until they made it through to Lake Pilho.

"Well, that's all that I've got to say," Sad Eyes announced dispassionately. "Anybody got anything they want to ask? Questions, comments, suggestions, anything at all?"

Silence. '_Four days; just have to make it through four days and then you're home free._'

"Alright, I guess that's it. Sleep well everybody."

* * *

Joo-Hwan stumbled over a rock; had it not been for the conveniently wide back of silent Oh, the farmer would have performed a truly epic face plant on the hard ground. As it happened Joo-Hwan ended up doing a face plant on the marginally softer back of the large man. Joo-Hwan's hands flew to his face; his nose was still tender from the beating he had received a week and a half ago. Great, now even the rocks were trying to kill him!

Mikan was by her husband's side in a second, concern written all over her pretty features. "Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere? Your face! Did you hurt your face?"

"It's nothing dear, I'm fine," Joo-Hwan said, fighting to break free from his wife's grasp. It was surprisingly hard given how small Mikan was. The farmer saw tears beginning to well up in the corners of his wife's eyes.

"A-are you sure," she stammered around her sniffles. Her husband nodded firmly.

"Of course love. Something like this isn't about to slow me down."

Joo-Hwan gave his wife a tender kiss before sending her back to the wagon with the children and the other young women. For some reason, the farmer felt a heaviness weighing down his heart as he watched Mikan walk back to the wagon.

"She must really love you if she get's that stressed over a bump on the nose."

Joo-Hwan turned to look at the speaker; it was one of the mercenaries, the young man with the hook swords and hodgepodge armor.

"She does," the farmer replied warily. Thought he had been one of the men who had hired them, Joo-Hwan still did not feel completely comfortable with the mercenaries. After all; how could you ever _really_ trust someone who sold themselves for money?

"I'm sensing a but at the end of that sentence," Jet remarked.

Joo-Hwan debated with himself on whether or not he should even be talking to the mercenary at all. Gradually, the good manners that his mother had drummed into him as a child would not allow the farmer to ignore the mercenary's questions, no matter how much he may have wanted to.

"She wasn't always like that," he said. "Well, I guess that's not entirely true. I mean she was always a bit jumpy and she had an overprotective streak in her, but ever since our village was destroyed by Fire Nation raiders, it's like the whole world frightens her."

Joo-Hwan saw the young mercenary's face darken ominously. "When even life itself terrifies you, huh," he said. The teen's right hand clenched and unclenched. "I've been there…… guess that means you should pay attention to where you put your feet then."

"I was scanning the hills for enemies," the farmer said a little defensively.

"Checking for bandits?"

The farmer nodded, looking towards the hills once again. "The day's almost over and they haven't made a move yet; I don't get it. From what Sad Eyes said the other night, I figured that we would have had to fight by now."

The young mercenary shook his head, as if pitying the older man's naiveté. "When planning an ambush, it doesn't make sense to give your targets an open avenue of escape. If we were attacked right now, we could just run back the way we came; most of us would probably get away. If it was me up in those hills, I'd wait for us to get far enough into the Maw so that turning back wouldn't be a viable option, then I'd shut the trap."

Joo-Hwan was horrified. He'd never even thought about the situation in those terms. "Thanks for giving me something else to obsess over," he grumbled.

* * *

"Any time," the mercenary replied sincerely.

The night air rung with the rattles, squeaks, squeals and howls of the nocturnal beasts which called the ridges and ravines of the Maw home sweet home. The mercenary Sad Eyes stared out into the night, her hooded eyes unfocused. She sighed.

"Spirits, that's a beautiful sound," Sad Eyes said to no one in particular.

"What, the chatters and chirps of a million-billion vermin and beasts and hill savages," Hoi remarked sarcastically. Choosing to ignore the mild rudeness of that statement, the mercenary instead cut a droopy eye at the only other people sharing this particular patch of dirt.

"You're entitled to your opinions," the mercenary told the refugee. She turned to face the other person sitting next to the campfire. "But what about you, big guy?"

Silent Oh closed his eyes and cocked his head to one side, listening to the sounds of the night. A smile slowly spread across his weather beaten face.

"You see," the mercenary sniped at Hoi. "He gets it."

"Bah," Hoi huffed without much venom.

Sad Eyes cocked and eyebrow, curious at the man's demeanor. "What's the matter, I thought you poor peasant folk were supposed to have appreciation for nature and shit like that."

Hoi chuckled. "This might sound a bit strange coming from a country bumpkin like me, but truth is that I've always despised the countryside and the outdoors. I owned the apothecary shop in our old village; left the family farm to my sister's boy. He's the one who likes playing in the mud."

"I take it that you take a pretty dim view of the old homestead," Sad Eyes replied.

Hoi looked the mercenary directly in her drooping eyes. "Our village was just an unimportant backwater and my entire life, I dreamed of leaving the place behind. It's no secret that living like an animal in the middle of nowhere never appealed to me."

"You make being an animal sound like a bad thing," the mercenary remarked. The look on Hoi's face clearly said that he wished for her to explain herself.

Sad Eyes rolled over onto her back and looked up at the starry night sky above. "The life of an animal is simple; pure. An animal doesn't fight a war; an animal doesn't burn down a village; an animal doesn't sell the conquered into slavery and an animal doesn't rape the vanquished women. Mate, feed, avoid getting killed, and repeat; that's all there is to an animal's life."

"So you're saying you envy the lives led by badger-frogs," Hoi asked pointedly. The refugee found the mercenary's opinions ridiculous. "What about all of the benefits that came from civilized society? What about all of the good that's been accomplished because of it?"

"Civilization; don't make me laugh," Sad Eyes replied, a trace of bitterness coloring her normally bloodless and composed voice. "Human civilization gave us law and government and a thousand different ways to cure a thousand different diseases; it also gave us a million different ways to destroy _all_ of that. Way I see things, humanity is more of an aberration of the natural order and less of an essential component."

Hoi shifted awkwardly in place. He was beginning to feel very uncomfortable with the atmosphere that the mercenary was emitting. The hard obsidian eyes of Silent Oh bore into those of the mercenary with considerable intensity, as if the large man was attempting to divine some type of hidden message underneath Sad Eyes' words.

"You certainly have a very poor opinion of the human race miss," Hoi remarked.

"I've got a lot of reasons," Sad Eyes replied.

The three humans sat in silence; the symphony of the beasts continued on in the background.

* * *

Longshot was a very early riser. Years spent growing up on a farm had installed in the young man an infallible internal clock; the years he spent in a training compound to become a Yu Yuan archer and later the years he had spent as an anti-Fire Nation guerilla had given him an extra-infallible alarm system. The archer's eyes sprang open as the overwhelming need to piss assaulted his bladder. Pulling himself out of his sleeping bag he stepped over the still sleeping Smellerbee, heading towards a group of boulders up on the ridge.

Reaching the rocks, Longshot undid his pants and was just beginning to relieve himself when his sharp ears heard something off to his right. The sun had not risen yet, but Longshot's eyes had little trouble piercing the darkness to see something was moving down the ridge in the direction of the refugee campsite. The archer sighed in relief as his bladder finally emptied. The shape- an enemy?- had gotten pretty close to the camp; in the dark it would be easy for the sentries to miss anyone coming down on them from the hills. After shaking out the last few drops and securing his pants, Longshot peeled off towards the mysterious stranger.

With every step he got closer and his vision in the darkness got better. He had thought right; that was no animal over there. That was a man; a very short one at that. Ragged clothing, unpleasant smell, armed to the teeth and sneaking around the perimeter of a group of sleepy, vulnerable refugees; definitely a bandit, if he had ever seen one. He had better take care of this one before heading back down to camp.

Longshot's element was silence; the intruder wouldn't hear a thing until it was too late. Longshot crept down the ridge until he was barely a foot behind the bandit. The mute archer stretched forth his arms, grabbing the bandit about the face and neck. The short bandit grunted and thrashed in surprise and fear for a moment before Longshot used his height advantage to exert a bit more leverage and snap the bandit's neck. The short man only had time for a surprised grunt before the light in his eyes was extinguished; he never had a chance.

The archer looked down at the body while he massaged a kink out of his neck. Well, this guy was dead; he supposed that he had better get back to camp to warn everyone. Longshot stifled a sleepy yawn as he made his way back down to the campsite, easily bypassing the sleeping sentry; stupid civilians.

Toeing Smellerbee and Jet in their sides, he quickly roused them from their respective slumbers.

"Mmff," the female Freedom Fighter grunted muzzily. Longshot gave a significant thumbs down, a well know gesture among the trio; they'd been encircled. Cursing, Jet pulled himself away from his sleeping bag and walked across the camp to where Sad Eyes was sleeping. He crouched on one knee and spoke her name.

"Sad Eyes, Sad Eyes wake up!"

The mercenary's eyes cracked open and looked at the young man with an expression that said bad things would happen to Jet if this wasn't important. Utterly unfazed, Jet informed the wagon master of the situation. Sad Eyes frowned; shit, it was way too early in the morning for this. She looked up at Jet,

"How many hours do you think we've got before the sun comes up?"

Jet shrugged. "Hour and a half, two at the max."

That should be just enough time. Sad Eyes sat up and grabbed her sword belt.

"One of you three go and wake up scar face," she ordered around a wide yawn. "We're going on a little field trip."

* * *

Pain; throbbing, pulsing, enveloping and there was a lot of it. Mao desperately wanted to clutch at his head, to rub his temples, do something to deal with the pain but his hands wouldn't move…….. why couldn't his hands move?

Mao the hill bandit opened his eyes slowly; seven or eight hard faces looked right back at him. What the… the refugees? Had he been caught? The hill bandit buried his aching head in the dirt, humiliated at the fact that he had been captured by the people who were supposed to be his prey.

"Looks like he's awake," a gruff voice said from above Mao. He turned his head to look at the speaker, a scowling young man with a hideous burn scar covering one side of his face.

"Well if he's awake, then get him off the ground," another voice barked; cold, female, authoritative. Mumbling something about 'overbearing bitches' the scarred one roughly hoisted the captive bandit up into a sitting position; Mao noticed that there were more people around than he had originally thought.

"Comfy," a woman with a heavily tattooed arm and drooping eyelids asked him.

"No," the hill bandit spat back, not willing to let a bunch of greenhorns think that they could intimidate him. The tattooed woman looked concerned.

"Well we can't have that. Somebody cut his hands loose."

Someone came up behind Mao and cut his hands loose. The bandit rubbed his wrists, restarting the circulation in his hands; he eyed the droopy eyed woman with suspicion. He was a dangerous man; why was she allowing him his hands?

"I've done something for you, now you do something for us, okay," the droopy eyed woman said in a reasonable voice. The bandit felt his hackles rising. Was she looking down on him?

'_She's looking down on me,_' Mao thought angrily. '_Think you can just play with me? I'll show you, you bitch.'_

Mao sat himself up straight and puffed out his chest. "You got a lotta nerve, attacking an innocent man who never done nothing to any of you people," the bandit spat.

If the hill bandit had expected to gain any sympathy, he had sorely miscalculated in his assumption. Everyone within hearing range of the captured man rolled their eyes; did this guy actually think anybody would believe him if he just played dumb? Sad Eyes sighed inwardly; they certainly hadn't caught one of the smart ones. He should have realized that he was caught; give up what he knew and pray that his captors would let him go. That would have been the smart thing to do.

But this one seemed determined to play the affronted victim; she had neither the time nor the patience for that. Her time was valuable. Those bandits that she and her helpers had rooted out of the hills had just been an advance party and there was no way to tell how close their main force was.

"So," Sad Eyes said slowly, her voice a lethargic crawl creaking from in between her thin lips. "…you swear, hand to the spirits, that you weren't up to no good," Sad Eyes said dispassionately, already bored with her façade of civility.

Mao raised his right hand and said, "I swear, hand to the spirits that…"

_Shnkt! _

The sound of Sad Eyes' blade slicing through the air cut off the rest of the bandit's statement. The silence that followed was broken only by the sound of four of Mao's fingers hitting the ground. The bandit stared dumbly at his hand, or more precisely, what was left of his hand. Some blood spurted. That's when it started to hurt.

Mao started screaming; the refugee children- as well as a fair number of the refugee adults- started screaming. Sad Eyes massaged her temples; was all this noise really necessary.

"My hand! I'll kill you! You bitch, I'll kill you!"

The hill bandit cried, trying to stem the flow of blood spurting from his right hand. Rather than answering his threats verbally, Sad Eyes booted the sniveling man in the face, knocking him back onto the ground.

"Listen to me you lying piece of shit," she ground out in a voice cold enough to chill the blood in a living man's veins. "No matter what you do, no matter what you say, no matter how much you cry, and no matter how much you beg; you are going to die. The only question is how long is it going to take; I'm going to keep on cutting things off until I hear what I want to hear. And don't go passing out on me before I'm done because if I have to go to the trouble of waking you up, I'm going to make things much, much worse just for that aggravation you've caused me. You understand what I'm saying?"

The bandit nodded quickly.

"Good," the mercenary replied. "Question number one; how many of you little watchers were up in the hills?"

"T-ten, only ten."

The bandit bit back a scream of agony. Sad Eyes swore; including this guy, she and her mercenaries had only encountered eight spies. The other two had probably already hightailed it back to their main camp by now, worse luck. She eyed the bandit she'd caught; the guy's eyes had gone out of focus and he was leaning like he was dangerously close to falling over. The mercenary sucked her teeth in annoyance; she reached out and took the bandit's mangled hand in her own and began digging her nails into the open wounds.

"MMMAAAAGGHHAAAAHHH!! STOP IT, STOP IT!"

"You don't sleep until I say you're done, understand," the normally dour woman said furiously. She dug her fingers in a bit deeper, brushing past the fragments of bones and pushing further into the layers of severed muscles and mangled tendons. Mao writhed on the ground, completely cowed by her cruel attentions.

"Tell me about your band. Where were you camped, how many of you are there, everything that you think might be useful!"

The bandit spilled his guts quite readily. The bandits had been following their group since they had entered the Maw; they were a band of about thirty (not counting the eight that Sad Eyes and her crew had dispatched already) and their primary business was the human trade. Part of the reason why they had picked this group of refugees to attack was due to the number of young women and children that were traveling with it. When Sad Eyes was convinced that the man had said all that he knew, she released her hold on the captive's hand. She wiped the red corruption from her hands onto the bandit's back.

"Thanks," the mercenary deadpanned before turning to her four helpers. "So, who wants to do the honors?"

The four young faces looked at the mercenary in annoyed indignation. If she wanted to go to all the trouble of torturing that poor bastard, then the least she could do was finish him off herself. The mercenary frowned at their reluctance to dirty work for her.

'_Damn, I didn't want to get any more blood on me_.'

* * *

Dry; everything in the Maw was just so dry and dusty and arid. The plants were small and their skins were thick and their branches were prickly; they jealously protected whatever moisture they had managed to scrounge up. When the wind blew, it never brought cool relief; it just blew hot air in your face and covered you in dust. The dust got into your clothes, into your hair and beard, down your throat until your guts were lined with sediment. This whole world was just so terribly dry.

But what was this on the ground underneath his very feet?

Wet. Wet, wet, wet, wet, wet, read and still so wet! He reached a hand out, tentatively at first, nervously. His arm shook in excitement and anticipation. The tips of his calloused fingers met the red; wet, oh so wet! The fingers traced the wet red from where it had pooled so beautifully on the ground back to the well from which it had escaped. The fingers reached into the still moist, the still warm orifice. The arm connected to the hand that was connected to the fingers drove them even deeper into the soaking entrance; deeper and deeper.

There was a familiar hardening in his crotch; the sweet tickling sensation running up his back- the butterfly kisses of a long forgotten lover whose skillful ministrations had outlived her name in his mind. His sopping red hand exited the well spring. The free hand grabbed his instrument, moving slowly reminiscing of years gone by.

The taste?

Tart, coppery, far inferior to his phantom lover's and yet still so satisfying after so long without. Another finger was inserted into his eager mouth, then a third after that. Then the fourth; his strokes became harder, more intense. Tongue wormed its way around the digits attempting to get every last bit of the red. We and full and savory; he could feel it coming!

"Boss."

It was coming. He could feel it gathering, preparing to erupt in a rain of…

"Um, Lord Ag-O?"

Frustration and anger; didn't this fool realize how close he was? Ten, fifteen seconds! That was that he really needed to finish!

But it was too late, the moment was passed and dry, dry, horrendously dry reality came crashing back down around his ears. Rising to his full height, the monstrously tall bandit chieftain Ag-O glowered down at his unnerved subordinate, the madness alighting his rugged angular features accented nicely by the blood smearing his lips.

"What is it," the deep base of the bandit leader rumbled, tight with a barely suppressed desire to go out and hurt something.

"Um, we found the bodies of the rest of the guys that were supposed to be watching the targets."

Ag-O went back to looking at the decapitated body on the ground. "All dead?"

It was more of a statement than a question- of course they were all dead. His underling answered in the affirmative anyway. Ag-O bent at the waist and palmed Mao's severed head, holding it so that living man and dead man were nose to nose.

"Tell me, were the others… were they like Mao," he asked, hope evident in his deep voice.

"No sir. They were dead, but all from clean wounds. It looks like Mao's the only one that they took their time on," the shorter man replied, completely missing the tone in his leader's voice.

"FUCK!"

The disappointment was thick as whale oil. The underling looked terrified by his volatile leader's sudden outburst. Ag-O paid his no mind. The giant began tossing his deceased soldier's head from hand to hand as if he were a child playing with his favorite ball. It was really just too much. But the red was still wet; the ones who did this couldn't have gone too far.

"Tell everyone to mount up. We're following them right now."

The nameless underling ran off to comply with his boss' order. Ag-O discarded the head, tossing it aside like so much trash. He stopped to lick some of the red still lingering on his thumb; things were going to get wet. He'd make sure of that!


	12. Chapter 12

_I'mmmm baaaaccckkk!! (The crowd screams in a unique mix of terror and anticipation). I'm sorry to everyone who has been reading this story about it taking me this long to upload the new chapters. It's September and I'm back in school, so unfortunately, I have to deal with real life for a while. I felt so bad about things that I produced two chapters this time as a way of saying I'm sorry being away so long. Anyway, expect my updates to be a lot less frequent from here on; I'm thinking of once a month instead of the once every 2-3 weeks that I was doing before. _

Chapter 12

"They probably all think that we're a bunch of psychopaths now," Jet griped to her disfigured companion as they hustled the refugees at a fast clip along the twisting trails of the Maw.

"They're annoying," Lee grunted back.

The scarred vagrant honestly could not care less about what the refugees thought of him. As long as in their fear, they didn't do anything stupid that got him killed or otherwise maimed, then they could think him the very scum of the earth.

"Besides, I didn't see you protesting too hard when Sad Eyes was slicing up that bandit."

"You may be used to being thought of as a sick fucking _sadist_, but I kinda resent being grouped in that category, thank you very much," the swordsman shot back.

Despite the things that he had done in his past, Jet was not used to the idea of people being afraid of him (except for the Fire Nation, but they didn't count as real people anyway). Frankly, he did not like the fearful looks that the refugees were sending his way. The scarred swordsman rolled his eyes but maintained his steely silence. He didn't want to get into a pointless argument with the other young man at a time like this.

Lee paused in his jog for a second and looked back over his shoulder. He could hear them coming; the bandits had not been that far behind them to begin with and he could hear them getting closer by the second. The scarred vagrant felt the first beads of nervous sweat beginning to form on his back; he turned away and resumed his jog.

Death was charging at full speed right towards him; he did not want to die. He was not going to die!

A high-pitched cry pulled him out of his ponderings. Out of the corner of his eye Lee spied one of the refugee children- a girl of eleven or twelve years, too old to ride along with the younger children in the wagon- had fallen down and seemed to have hurt her knee. Without even once breaking stride the scarred swordsman stepped over and grabbed the girl by one of her small elbows, hauling her up off of the ground and back onto her feet. He paused to dust sobbing the child off.

"Are you alright?"

No sooner was the question out of his mouth than one of the refugee women quickly snatched the girl's hand and wrenched her out of the scarred vagrant's grips, as if she was afraid that Lee would decide to carry the youngster off into the hills and rape her. The foreboding glare the firebender directed towards the overprotective mother did nothing to change the refugee woman's mind.

"See, not so easy being the bad guy, right," Jet said a bit smugly as Lee fell back in line with her.

"Shut up," Lee replied, though even to his ears, his retort sounded more than a little bit petulant. By the way she was smirking, it was clear that Jet had noticed it too. The scarred vagrant grunted, conceding that twig-boy had made his point.

Still, as a former prince, the scarred vagrant had a fair amount of pride left to him. Though he had initially wished to avoid an argument, he found the idea of leaving the Freedom Fighter- a peasant- with the last word to be a bit distasteful. Old prejudices died hard.

"Alright so having them being afraid of us could make things a bit inconvenient, but we couldn't have taken that bandit prisoner and there was no way that we were going to leave him alive and give the enemy one more solider to kill us with. So, what should we have done?"

"You're changing the subject."

"Deal with it."

The two young men jogged along in silence for a minute or so. The quiet stretched on for so long that Lee was beginning to think that the other boy was going to let the conversation die, but eventually Jet spoke up.

"There's a time and a place for… those kinds of things. It was probably the right time for Sad Eyes to do what she did to that bandit, but it was definitely in the wrong place."

The scarred vagrant glanced sidelong at the Freedom Fighter. "Come again," he asked, not quite getting twig-boy's point.

"Torture's not something you just do out in the open; you've got to do it out of sight, behind locked doors, someplace where nobody can hear how much the poor bastard who's getting it is suffering. You most definitely don't do it in front of a bunch of honest farmers and their _children_."

'_Children.'_

One word filled with so much emphasis. Lee had never even thought about how the youngsters that they were traveling with would be affected by what Sad Eyes had done to that bandit. He supposed that it was the result of his own innocence having been stripped away from him all those years ago. He idly wondered when he had gotten to the point where scenes of violence didn't affect him anymore; when had he gotten used to it? A very pregnant pause sat between the two young men for a while before Lee spoke up.

"You seem to know a lot about torture Twig-Boy," he said matter-of-factly.

"It's a cold world out there Fry Face."

The scarred vagrant decided it was time to let this increasingly disquieting conversation die.

* * *

From the back of her ostrich-horse, the mercenary Sad Eyes turned in her saddle and looked back at the dust cloud and alarmingly loud sound of the footfalls of dozens of ostrich-horses charging hard on the heels of the refugee column she was leading.

The tattooed woman bit her thumb- a nervous habit that she thought that she had gotten rid of years ago- and tried to think through her current situation. She and her hired were strong, but they were greatly outnumbered. The mercenary knew the Maw like the back of her hand; there was a way that her party could survive this, she just had to get them to the right place. The problem was, at the rate that the bandits were gaining on them, she wouldn't be able to make it to that place in time.

What she needed was a way to slow them down. Sad Eyes scanned the surrounding terrain for something, anything that could help stop the advance of the bandits even if it was just for a few minutes. While scanning the walls of the box canyon that the refugee column had just passed through, the mercenary's drooping eyes alighted on something that she could use.

"Oi, Longshot!"

Upon hearing his name, the mute archer came back to see what the mercenary wanted.

"Just how good a shot are you?"

Ag-O was beginning to have fun. There really was nothing like the thrill of the chase; to a predator like the bandit chieftain, the thrill of the chase was second only to the absolute ecstasy of finally running your prey to ground, sinking your teeth into them, rending them limb from limb, reaching inside of their chests the grasp at their still beating hearts and ripping-

"Lord Ag-O!"

"WHAT," the monstrous bandit roared, turning on the subordinate who had interrupted the rather pleasant daydream he had been having. The smaller bandit, his name was Liu, shrank back in the saddle of his ostrich-horse so fast that he almost ended up falling off the animal.

"N-nothing, sir; it's just that you were getting this glazed look in your eyes and were starting to drool a little bit so I wanted to see if you were alright."

Now that the other man had mentioned it, Ag-O touched his face and found that he had in fact been salivating a little bit. Wiping the wetness from off of his face, the giant bandit gave an apologetic smile that was all sharp teeth to Liu.

"It was nothing, I was just having a particularly delicious daydream, that's all. Thanks for keeping me from embarrassing myself."

The smaller bandit grinned back. "It was really no problem boss."

Liu felt like wetting himself.

Ag-O sat forward in his saddle urging his mount on faster. As he and his bandits rounded the bend and entered into another little box canyon, his sharp eyes were able to see the line of refugees making their way out the other side. A grin that would have made Koh the Face Stealer soil himself slowly spread across the bandit chieftain's face. The table was almost set!

"_You see that collection of rocks up near the exit of the canyon? Looks pretty unstable right?"_

Longshot unsoldered his bow and peered the few hundred yards across the box canyon towards the rapidly advancing bandit force.

"_I've got a plan for how we can get out of this, but first we need to buy some time to get where we need to go. That's where you come in…"_

The young archer peered at his target, the grouping of unstable rocks that, through some unexplainable accident of nature, were perched precariously at the top of the slope near the end of the box canyon. Longshot gave his bowstring a few experimental tugs before pulling an iron headed arrow from his quiver.

"_I know it's a bit of a stretch, but if you could toss a few arrows at those rocks and cause some of them to slide down the slope, then that could give us enough time for me to get us where we want to go. Think you can manage that?" _

Did Longshot think he could manage it? The mute archer took aim at his target and sighed at the ignorance of those who did not have a true appreciation of the art of archery. What was the expression Sad Eyes had used; '_toss a few arrows?_'

What she- what most people- failed to understand was that archery was more about precision than about power. It was more about _where_ you hit than _how hard_ you hit. Toss a few arrows indeed! All he needed was one. He peered back down into the canyon and checked to see the progress of the bandits; they seemed to be in a good enough place.

He drew back on his bowstring and let fly.

The low rumbling was the thing that told Ag-O that something was amiss. The spirits had blessed the giant bandit with very sharp ears and years spent living at the edge of a knife had given him an animal's sense for impending danger. These two senses told him that the rumbling that he had just heard was different from the dull thuds of the feet of the ostrich-horses that he and his men rode on. In this world, the only thing Ag-O trusted was his senses.

So, before the shouts of terror and warning had even escaped the throats of his men, the bandit chieftain spurred his mount forward and darted through the exit of the box canyon. His men, who didn't share their leader's finely tuned instincts, were behind to deal with whatever it was that Ag-O had felt coming.

The bandit chieftain looked on in interest as a group of rocks began sliding down the slope of the box canyon towards his men. The bandits near the front- the ones who managed to keep their heads- simply spurred their mounts forward and copied their leader's action, going all the way through the exit of the canyon to the other side.

The stupid ones and the ones who panicked tried to go _backwards_ ended up becoming stuck with their comrades who were behind them. The situation was not helped by the fact that the exit to the canyon was fairly narrow, making it hard for a man on ostrich-horseback to maneuver. The rocks coming down the hill ended up making an even bigger mess of things.

The falling stones weren't big enough to block the exit to the canyon. Now that he was looking at things from the side, Ag-O noticed that most of the rocks were small to medium sized; the larger ones that had been dislodged were sliding down the hill at a much slower pace. However, looking at things from below, the mere sight of the rocks and the ominous sound that they made coming down the hill were enough to throw surprised men and animals into a panic.

A few of the beasts were felled by rolling stones crashing into their knees or ankles, their riders thrown from their backs. By the time the rockslide ended, Ag-O's entire bandit clan was in disarray; the bandit leader gritted his teeth in frustration. At least for the time being, his prey had gotten away.

* * *

All in all, Longshot could say that he was feeling very good right now; he always found pleasure in being able to perform difficult shots. Granted, given his skills with a bow and arrow that last shot hadn't been all that hard, but to a normal person it would have seemed pretty amazing.

"So how was it," the tattooed mercenary called out to the lanky archer as he came loping over the hill.

The stoic young man gave a quick thumbs up to signify that everything had gone according to plan. Sad Eyes nodded before turning back around in the saddle of her ostrich-horse and heading back towards the front of the refugee column.

Longshot fell back in line beside Smellerbee. The mute archer gave the swordswoman a questioning look. The petite girl just shrugged her small shoulders.

"Beats me; Sad Eyes seems to know where we're going so I guess we'll just have to trust her not to lead us someplace where we'll get slaughtered."

Longshot supposed his friend was right; they would just have to trust the mercenary to see them through this. That rockslide that he had triggered had been good enough to halt the bandit advance, but it was only a quick fix. The falling stones couldn't have done enough damage to the group to make them want to turn back and there certainly weren't enough of them to block off the exit to the canyon and keep them trapped in there. It was only a matter of time before the bandits got themselves together and came after them again.

What did Sad Eyes have planned? Where was she taking them that would let them have a fighting chance against dozens of hardened killers? The mute archer was pulled from his thoughts by an ecstatic shout from up at the front of the column of refugees.

"We're here," Sad Eyes called out.

Both Longshot and Smellerbee made their way to the front of the column to find out just where 'here' was. They were soon joined by Jet and Lee who had also come up to the head of the line. As the four young people looked down into the rift, Longshot soon found himself nodding.

Yes, this might do nicely.

* * *

Ag-O was not in a good mood; why beat around the bush? Ag-O was pissed off! He had had the prey in his hands; he had been so close to getting rid of this horrid dryness and tasting the red again! Then those pesky refugees had gone and messed everything up. The rockslide had killed two of his men and had left another two immobile- their mounts had sustained damage to their legs and were unable to continue the chase. The giant bandit was able to quickly reorganize his remaining troops and set them back on the trail of the refugees. Any complaints from his rabble were quickly and violently silenced.

Right then and there the bandit chieftain decided that he was going to make their leaders suffer slowly before they died.

Before long, the bandits had caught on to the refugee trail. Forcing his mount forward, Ag-O and his band rounded the bend and immediately stopped short.

"Shit," the giant bandit said under his breath. So this was where they had been headed.

Separated by only a few hundred yards, the refugees and the bandits could see each other quite clearly. On level ground, the mounted raiders could have overtaken the refugees in a matter of minutes; however, the ground was far from level.

The two groups were situated on opposing sides of one of the Maw's many box canyons. However, compared to the other canyons, this one was unusually shaped. The refugees were positioned atop a flat topped stone outcropping which rose twenty or so feet out of the canyon floor. As one approached the stone projection, the width of the canyon got progressively smaller, creating a bottleneck of sorts on its right side. The side of the stone tower that faced the bandits was nearly vertical with no visible handholds or crevasses that would have made scaling the wall an option.

Ag-O gritted his teeth; these people were really pissing him off with their clever tricks; how the hell did they even get up there in the first place?

'_Must be some way up there from the back,_' he thought to himself.

"Lord Ag-O, I really don't like the looks of things. This is looking to be more trouble than it's worth; can't we just call it a day," one of his men asked.

The giant bandit cocked his head to one side; it was a logical question. After all, they were bandits; bandits were all about going after the easy score. They got in and got out with minimal danger to themselves. They were not in the business of stalking a group of dirty refugees that didn't even look fairly prosperous. Logic dictated that the band should just give up the chase and go find some easier pickings.

Ag-O thrust his fist into his presumptuous subordinate's neck, crushing the man's larynx and knocking him from the back of his ostrich-horse.

The surrounding bandits froze in their saddles; not exactly stunned- none were strangers to their chief's violent ways- but cowed all the same. The monstrous bandit swung his devilish eyes over his assembled underlings.

"LETS GO," the ogre roared, charging his mount full tilt towards the stone tower where the refugees sat. With shouts born of fear and adrenaline, the rest of the bandits charged after their leader.

* * *

Lee watched impassively as the bandits made their approach to the stone platform where he and his comrades were gathered. Unless you were an air or an earthbender, the only way to get to the top of the platform was a twisting footpath at the back of the projection. It was funny; he had been on edge the whole time when the bandits had been nothing more than a rumbling in the distance. But now…

'_Now you're just ready to get this over with…_'

The firebender looked over at the Freedom Fighters and Sad Eyes; they all shared the same unemotional look that he himself wore. Apparently they were all feeling the same as he was. When he swung his eyes in the direction of the refugees… well, they were a different story altogether. Some were crying, some were shaking, some were praying.

'_How long has it been since I prayed_,' the scarred vagrant wondered out of nowhere.

The sound of splitting air brought Lee back to reality; he looked over and saw Longshot notching another arrow into his bow, pulling back on the string and letting loose. He traced the flight of the missile and watched as it imbedded itself into the head of one of the approaching bandits.

"Nice shot," Lee commented. The mute archer shrugged slightly, saying in his inaudible way that it wasn't anything to make a big deal out of. Longshot withdrew another arrow and let fly, downing yet another charging bandit, quickening his pace. The firebender saw that the archer had eleven arrows; he wondered if he could use them all up before the bandits ran into the bottleneck.

Lee counted seven bandits felled by the deadly archer before he watched the first of the bandits make their way into the bottleneck; one- a monstrously large man- was staying at the entrance, directing the other bandits forward into the bottleneck. The scarred vagrant hurried over to the edge of the stone platform and looked down into the bottleneck. The scarred vagrant was soon joined in his observations by the Freedom Fighters. Jet smirked.

"They look they're just about buggered, don't you think," the Freedom Fighter said, cheerily drawing his hook swords.

The bottleneck had a narrow entrance and a narrow exit; mounted on ostrich-horses, the bandits could not pass through the entrance more than two at a time. And in the narrow crevasse, it was impossible for them to utilize the main advantage mounted troops had over dismounted troops; the speed and mobility awarded to them by their mounts. This made them easy pickings.

Leaping down from the stone platform, drawing his blades as he descended, Lee took the head of the first bandit while Smellerbee landed on the back of the other bandit, burying her own blades into the man's back.

Smacking the ostrich-horse on it's haunches, Lee sent the beast on through out of the bottleneck; provided they lived through this, having an extra ostrich-horse or three would make traveling a whole lot easier.

Two more bandits on ostrich-horseback force their way into the bottleneck; Smellerbee dashed towards the beasts. Using her small size to her advantage, she darted under the long necks of the avian creatures. Swinging her sword upwards, she skillfully cut the throats of one, then the other, ostrich-horse. It happened so fast that the bandits did not even have time to draw their weapons before being thrown forwards onto the ground.

One of the bandits went down impacting with the ground headfirst, his body still moving after his head and neck had already stopped; Lee winced at the sight. The firebender quickly rushed over and slashed the neck of the living bandit; the other fellow was not about to be getting up again.

Two more bandits tried to come into the bottleneck- now even more difficult to maneuver in due to the two ostrich-horse corpses that lay sprawled on the canyon floor- and were dispatched in much the same way as their companions. Lee had to wonder; just how stupid were these guys?

It didn't take a tactical genius to figure out that you couldn't fight in such a narrow area while on ostrich-horse back. One would think that after seeing their first two men get killed because they couldn't ride in the narrow space they would have figured that out.

"WHAT ARE YOU IDIOTS DOING, DISMOUNT! FIGHT ON FOOT YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!"

'_Shit_,' the scarred vagrant thought bitterly. It seemed that once again, the Spirits were having a good time screwing with him. He hadn't actually wanted smart enemies; he liked fighting stupid people! Stupid people were easy to kill!

The bandits now making their way through the entrance to the bottleneck advanced slowly, weapons drawn. They were exhibiting much more caution than their previous attempts had shown, now aware that there were dangerous enemies standing in their path. Lee and Smellerbee glanced at each other.

"Time to go," the Freedom Fighter asked.

"Time to go," the firebender confirmed.

The two teens turned tail and ran for their lives. Lee heard an angry roar behind him; he didn't dare stop to look back, but he had a good idea of which one of the bandits it was. It was that monster that he had seen bullying the other bandits into submission.

The two running teens passed through the exit of the bottleneck safely, the charging bandits a few seconds behind them. The first two enemies that came out of the bottleneck were killed almost immediately by two well placed arrows from Longshot.

"Get up on the path," Sad Eyes ordered to the Lee and Smellerbee, "we'll handle them for awhile."

Drawing their swords, Jet and Sad Eyes charged down the twisting path towards the bandits while Smellerbee and Lee took the chance to catch their breath. The firebender watched the battle down below him with interest.

He was gaining a brand new appreciation of just how skilled the Freedom Fighter and the mercenary were. The tattooed woman and the Freedom Fighter made a pretty good team; the firebender counted four new corpses on the ground, not counting the two that Longshot had taken out at the beginning.

"This is just weird," Smellerbee said.

Longshot and Lee gave the girl questioning looks. She deigned to explain it to them.

"These guys are bandits; their thieves, murderers and kidnappers. Why the hell are they trying so hard to get us? I mean it's not like the refugees are carrying around big sacks of gold and jewels. We can't be worth this many of them dying."

Lee had to admit that the little one had a point. He tried to imagine a man like Sao Feng wasting this many of his men trying to obtain a prize as minor as this refugee column; he couldn't do it. The Romantic Warrior would never be so foolhardy; no bandit in his right mind would be so foolhardy. But a good underling follows the orders of his chief, and if the chief wanted to fight, then you had no choice but to fight.

The firebender scanned the slowly diminishing crowd of bandits until he spotted who he was looking for, the monstrous ogre. The giant bandit was currently crossing blades with Sad Eyes.

'_Take their leader and the fight's over._'

Ag-O was enjoying this! He was really, really enjoying this. His heart was beating so fast; his stomach was twisting itself into and out of knots; his pants were uncomfortably tight around his crotch. This is what he called living!

And he owed it all to the tattooed bitch he was fighting right now; she was tough, strong, and very hard to kill. He was bleeding from a dozen superficial wounds that the bitch had given him. The giant bandit deflected a stab that would have impaled him had he been a second too slow. He pulled back his hand 

and struck her with a balled up fist, knocking her to the ground; she had made a mistake with that last attack. She'd gotten too close to him, let him get his hands on her.

The ogre watched as the woman's head snapped backwards- she had a beautiful neck- before she fell limply to the ground. The ogre Ag-O grinned maliciously; he was going to enjoy raping her to death. Still grinning, the giant bandit bent down to grasp at the tattooed bitch's top. He was grinning right up until the arrow skewered his forearm.

The ogre's eyes widened, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Arrows were not supposed to suddenly grow out of people's arms; through the haze of madness and ecstasy that flooded his mind the beast was able to perceive with his animal instincts that he was in danger.

Moving wholly on instinct, the ogre Ag-O put his impaled arm up over his head to protect his head and neck. He was just in time so that the dao sword that was being brought down on him took him in the arm instead of the head.

Ag-O choked down a scream as the blade sliced its way through his flesh and get lodged in the smashed bones of his forearm. He gripped his blade in his good hand, planning to skewer the little punk who tried to assassinate him when he saw the pipsqueak's other arm rise and fall.

Lee brought his second dao down with as much power as he could force into one arm; his first one had gotten lodged in the giant bandit's thick muscles and hadn't been able to go all the way through. The second blade did a better job, cutting the rest of the way through the appendage and impacting with the ogre's head.

Blood spurted from the wound in angry jets, temporarily blinding the firebender. The young man hopped backwards into a defensive position, just in case the giant tried to counterattack immediately. From his new position Lee saw that he had relieved the man of his right arm and ear. As the ogre began screaming in agony, the battlefield grew silent.

The bandits froze, looking at the state to which their leader had been reduced. Then, almost as one, the marauders sheathed their weapons and made their way back through the bottleneck towards where they had left their mounts. The leader that they had feared so much screamed at them, called them cowards, ordered them to continue the battle and kill all of their enemies. The underlings said not a word and not one stooped to help their wounded leader.

The bandits had had enough- more than enough- fighting; they were going to go home, and they were going to leave their crazy ass leader right where he was.

"Never seen anything like that before," Jet said curiously, watching as the last of the bandit clan filed back through the bottleneck.

"Definitely weird," the scarred vagrant agreed.

"Guess this means we can just leave, right?"

The firebender shrugged. He looked over at Sad Eyes; the mercenary was still sprawled out on the ground from the knock that the still screaming giant had given her. Lee walked over to her and picked her up; he really didn't want to spend any more time around some screaming crazy who refused to go into shock and bleed to death like a decent person would.

"YOU! YOU SCAR FACED LITTLE PUNK! I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU! I'LL HUNT YOU DOWN AND TEAR OUT YOUR EYES! I'LL EAT YOUR HEART, Y'HEAR ME! I'LL FIND YOU! I'LL FIND YOU!!"

Jet cut his eyes at the firebender. "You gonna kill him, or just leave him there?"

Lee shrugged. "If he'd shut up, I'd put him out of his misery, but if he wants to keep shouting death threats, then I say let the asshole can bleed to death."

* * *

Joo-Hwan gripped his wife's shoulders tightly as they both looked out over the placid blue-black waters of Lake Pilho. The farmer breathed deep, inhaling the moist air; it was refreshing to breathe after spending such a long time in such dry country. Turning his back on the undulating waters, Joo-Hwan went over to where Silent Oh and his uncle Hoi were gathered with their bodyguards.

"I don't know how to thank you for all that you have done for us," Hoi said, bowing his head.

"Paying us the rest of our money would be a start," Sad Eyes said bluntly. The dispassionate mercenary was all about the bottom line. Fortunately, Hoi did not seem to mind the tattooed woman's attitude; he fished a small bag out of one of his pockets and tossed it to Sad Eyes. The mercenary caught it and looked inside.

"Yep, this looks to be about everything," she said. "The ferry should be coming to take you across the lake tomorrow morning; you'll be safe once you get to the other side."

"Again, thank you; may your own journeys through life be safe and prosperous."

The three refugee men bowed solemnly before turning to join the rest of the refugees on the shore of the lake. Left alone, an awkward silence fell over the four bodyguards as Sad Eyes gave each one their individual cuts of the protection fee.

"It was good working with you kids," Sad Eyes said. "What do you all plan to do now?"

"The three of us have always been headed for Ba Sing Se," Jet said, speaking for the other Freedom Fighters. "We're going to wait for the ferry and cross to the other side. It only takes around five days to get to the city from over there."

Sad Eyes nodded before everyone turned their attention to Lee. The firebender was slightly taken aback by the sudden attention being put on him.

"What about you guy?"

Actually, now that he thought about it, what _was_ he going to do now? Ever since he had escaped from Jade Passage, he had just been kind of drifting from place to place; he didn't have anyplace in particular that he wanted to go. On the other hand, he did know that he never wanted to go back to Onsung; he hated that city with unabashed passion.

"Not really sure," the firebender said after some thought. "I don't want to go back to Onsung, but I don't really know where I'm going to go from here on."

The Freedom Fighters exchanged glances before Jet stepped forward, extending his hand. "How about joining up with us and coming to Ba Sing Se."

Lee eyed the proffered hand for a long few seconds, considering. He knew that the roads of the Earth Kingdom could be dangerous places for somebody traveling by themselves; there was strength in numbers. Plus he knew that the Freedom Fighters knew how to fight and he didn't get the feeling that they would cut his throat when he went into the bushes to take a piss- provided, of course, that he didn't reveal himself as a firebender.

"Why not? I've always wanted to see Ba Sing Se."

The scarred vagrant clasped the Freedom Fighter's hand firmly.

* * *

"_Let me ask you something. Have you ever thought about destiny," a deep voice rumbled from out of the mists. _

"_Where did that come from," the voice's companion said, looking up from his tea and peering into the two glowing orbs shining through the mists. _

"_Hey, I asked my question first," the voice said back good-humoredly. "I know that it's a bit of a mind bender, but I figure that someone as wise as the avatar could come up with a pretty good answer. So answer me, have you ever thought about it?"_

"_At times," the avatar replied, stroking his thick russet beard. "Destiny is our fate, the great divine plan for life in this world, orchestrated by the Spirits back at the dawn of time."_

_The avatar paused to take a sip from his steaming tea before continuing. _

"_Personally, I hate the concept. The idea that every move that we make is preordained goes completely against the concept of free will. I like to think that, as men, we make our own destiny." _

_The bearded man's statement was met with amused chuckles by his mist shrouded companion. The avatar raised a bushy eyebrow in puzzlement. _

"_And that's funny, why?"_

"_Sorry," the deep voice said apologetically after bringing itself under control. "It wasn't funny so much as unexpected. I've had conversations with several avatars, but I've never had one tell me something like that." _

_The avatar shrugged, taking another measured sip from his tea. _

"_Maybe that's because I'm the first one you've talked to that's still among the ranks of the living; I would think that dying would adjust someone's opinions on………"_

* * *

"Aang, GET UP!"

"UUWWAAHH!!"

The young airbender snapped up out of his sleeping bag and looked around himself frantically, trying to see from which the direction the danger was coming from; Toph beaned the avatar on his bald head with a pebble, bringing Aang back down to earth.

"Jeez, Twinkle Toes, it's getting harder and harder to get you up in the mornings nowadays. Seriously, you're giving Sokka a run for his money."

The airbender rubbed the crumbs from his eyes and rubbed the spot on his head where the blind earthbender had nailed him. He pulled himself out of his sleeping bag, yawned and stretched.

"Sorry, I was having a weird dream."

Katara, who was busy folding up her sleeping bag, looked up at the young airbender in concern.

"What kind of dream was it," she asked.

"Mm-mmh, I can't remember very much of it. It's at the back of my mind, but I just can't pull up details. I remember a big pair of glowing eyes though. Oh, and black tea!"

Katara sighed, though she hadn't heard anything that she hadn't been expecting. Aang never seemed to remember to what happened to him in his dreams. She didn't see why she still continued to ask; she supposed that it was just in her nature to worry.

Ever since Aang's experience in the Valley of the Indu, the young airbender had been… different; it wasn't anything that seemed too serious. Aang was sleeping much more frequently and for longer periods nowadays. His appetite had increased- he now rivaled Sokka in the arena of gluttony- and there would be times when the avatar would just fall silent and stare off into space, as if looking at things that only he could see. It was weird but not really worrisome.

The group quickly broke camp and was on the road again in no time. It had been a long and hard journey coming down from the north; they had never realized just how much they had taken Appa for granted until the bison was no longer with them. Katara looked over at Aang; the boy was still concerned over the fate of his friend, but he seemed to be handling the loss much better than he had been before.

"According to the map, we're going to be coming up on the city of Lito by the end of the day," Sokka announced brightly. "That puts us a few weeks walk away from Ba Sing Se."

Katara noticed that her brother had been in an increasingly good mood for the past several weeks. It was as if the closer that they got to Ba Sing Se, the more chipper the Water Tribe warrior got. It was, quite frankly, kind of annoying.

"Don't get too confident," Katara warned. "We've still got a ways to go before we can assume that we're safe. There's still a lot of country in between here and Ba Sing Se. Anything could happen."

"Oh _Pee_-Shaw, baby sister," Sokka replied dismissively. "Things are finally about to go our way. We're finally out of the lawless territories and these roads are regularly patrolled by Earth Kingdom troopers. From here on, it's all mmmmssssmmmoooooth sailing."

The Water Tribe warrior punctuated the last two words in his sentence by undulating his arm up and down like a serpent.

Katara, no stranger to Sokka's propensity for devising dreadful catchphrases, was appalled by the new low that her mother's firstborn had fallen to. She opened her mouth to voice her protest; without missing a beat Sokka- who was no stranger to his sister's lack of appreciation for a clever turn of phrase- cut her off.

"And before you say anything, yes, I _am_ going to keep saying it. Yes, I _am_ going to keep saying it just like that, and I'm going to do the arm part. _Yes_, every time."

The Water Tribe warrior continued to look smug until he was swallowed up by a sinkhole which suddenly decided to open up underneath his feet.

"Thanks for that," Katara said.

"Anytime," Aang replied.


	13. Chapter 13

_Okay, this is the start of the new story arc. Everybody is settled in Ba Sing Se; enjoy! I command you!_

_P.S. Lemon warning; not smut (at least not my idea of smut...) but it serves a place in the story and isn't just gratuitious sex. _

Chapter 13

'_Nine. Million. People.'_

Ba Sing Se, the largest, most heavily fortified, most "culturally significant", most everything city in the whole wide world had nine million people living within its walls. Yet, try as he might, Sokka could not seem to get even _one_ of them to listen to what he was saying.

"What I'm trying to tell you is of serious importance! It could be vital to winning the war against the Fire Nation; doesn't that mean anything to you," the Water Tribe warrior yelled, steadily losing his grip on his patience.

How many times had he had to shout that in the last few weeks? Too damn many, that's how much.

Sokka's insistent attitude, however, seemed to lack the power to shake the blissfully vapid smile from the face of the handsome little bureaucrat sitting on the opposite side of the large wooden desk. The man made a show of shuffling some papers officiously before he decided to answer the warrior's rather loud query.

"War," the man said curiously, as if he were hearing that word for the first time in his life. "My good sir, I do not know how things are outside but there is no war here in Ba Sing Se."

Sokka's long face twisted into expression which suggested he had a serious pain in his bowels. _There is no war in Ba Sing Se;_ he must have heard that phrase a thousand different times from a thousand different people, all of them in that same glib, patronizing tone of voice. By an enormous effort of will, the Water Tribe warrior resisted the urge to start ripping his hair out by the roots due to the sheer stupidity of it all. Stupidity; that was the only thing that could explain the attitude of the government of this city.

"No war? How can you say that," Sokka asked. "How can you honestly sit there and say that when there's a Fire Nation army practically parked at your doorstep? Is that not a big enough sign? Or how about that giant drill; are you telling me that that didn't set off any alarms at all?"

The handsome bureaucrat's suddenly looked curious. "Giant… drill?"

The man said the words slowly, as if he was having a hard time comprehending that they could be used together in a sentence in that way. Sokka suddenly got a very cold feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Umm… Yeah. A giant drill; you know, the wonder of modern technology that was driven by the psychotic Fire Nation princess that almost breached the outer wall and broke into Ba Sing Se. _That_ drill."

The Earth Kingdom official's face went from curious to incredulous. "You don't say," the bureaucrat said simply. Sokka went slackjawed; the warrior could not believe what he was seeing. This guy was acting as if he were just hearing about the drill for the first time in his life. But that just was not possible, was it?

"You do know about the drill, right," the warrior asked, his sea blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. Sokka was not totally certain that the entire Earth Kingdom government was not trying to play some kind of sick, twisted joke on him. Did deception lie behind that insipid smile?

The bureaucrat smiled, "It certainly is news to me," he responded brightly.

Sokka stared, trying to spot a lie somewhere, anywhere in the man's expression. Nothing; he saw absolutely nothing. It was at that point that the Water Tribe warrior forgot about keeping a lid on his temper; he was just too pissed off to worry about being diplomatic anymore.

"Oh _come on_! It happened, like, three weeks ago! You should've heard a rumor at the very least! A giant drill burrowing its way through your city's walls isn't the type of thing that stays a well kept secret," the young man shouted is furious disbelief, flying out of his chair and knocking his seat onto the floor.

"Sir, please compose yourself," the bureaucrat- more than slightly alarmed at the young man's outburst- pleaded. Sokka noticed that he was no longer using his inside voice; he didn't care. The whole situation was just too infuriating. The bureaucrat sunk down lower in his seat.

"I am sincerely sorry that I could not be of any service to you sir, but your concerns seem to be of a military matter. I confess that I really do not see what you expect to get from talking with people here at the Ministry of Parks and Recreation."

The Water Tribe warrior sighed, suddenly feeling much older than his sixteen years would suggest. He quickly collected the items that he had brought with him; his maps, his invasion plans, his logistics timeline leading up to the Day of Black Sun and put them all back in his bag.

"Just working my way _down_ the food chain pal; sorry to have wasted your time."

With that said Sokka stormed out of the office and beat a hasty retreat away from the offices of the Ba Sing Se Municipal Ministry of Parks and Recreation.

'_If they've got fuckwits like that running things,_' he thought bitterly, _'…then the Earth Kingdom is royally screwed!' _

The Water Tribe warrior stubbornly shook his head; no, he couldn't start thinking like that. He had to keep up hope, no matter what. The minute that he started thinking that he was going to fail was the minute that he took the first step towards failing; his father had taught him that. But still…

"The Ministry of Parks and Recreation? What was I thinking?"

Sokka smiled ruefully to himself even as he felt a bitter sensation working up his throat; the answer to that was as clear as the blue sky above him. He had been thinking that he was desperate. He had been thinking that time was of the essence and that he, Katara, Toph, and Aang couldn't wait around for another month to have their audience with the Earth King.

Sokka had already been to the Ministry of War. He had also been to the ministry of Commerce after the people at the Ministry of War had brushed him off. After the people at Commerce had failed to do anything to help him he had gone to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farming. Then he'd gone to see the Ministry of Hospitality and Tourism and had gone down the list until he had stopped by the home offices of practically every ministry and department in Ba Sing Se.

He'd gone to the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the Municipal Fire Brigades, judges, aldermen, ombudsmen; anyone he could think of who might be able to help him raise a big enough stink so that he could fast-track a meeting with the Earth King. Yet everywhere he'd gone he'd either gotten the brush off from guys like that idiot bureaucrat or people had just flat out refused to talk to him and slammed the door in his face. The latter reaction was particularly bothersome to Sokka; those people acted as if they were afraid that something would happen to them if they were caught talking to him about the war.

The only person that the warrior had not tried to talk to was the man who sat at the head of the Dai Li, Long Feng. Sokka shuddered; he was not too proud to admit that the Dai Li scared him. It wasn't just for the fact that they were big, scary, and voiceless and liked to hang out in the shadows like a bunch of tundra ghosts. What disturbed him the most about the group was that they seemed to be the only organization in the Earth Kingdom government that operated efficiently, competently, and nobody seemed to know exactly what it was that the Dai Li did.

'_Protectors of Ba Sing Se's cultural heritage,_' Sokka thought wryly. If anybody really believed that, then he had a million acres of pristine real estate at the South Pole that he wanted to sell them. Going by that description, they should have been a bunch of librarians, not mysterious earthbending boogey-men.

The Water Tribe warrior paused at the bridge that would take him back in the direction of the guesthouse where he and his companions were staying. It was getting pretty late in the day and he had been pounding the pavement since early morning, but he did not feel like going back and being with everyone just yet. After yet another day of fruitless activity he just didn't feel up to having any of his friends asking him how things went.

After a moment of deliberation, he walked past the bridge and down the wide boulevard, no real destination in mind, just walking for the sake of walking. He let his feet take him where they would.

Before he rightly knew it, his wandering feet had taken him onto the campus of Ba Sing Se University. Students in the long green scholastic robes of the University swarmed every which way as the final classes of the day were let out, emptying their human contents onto the yard. Sokka paused for a moment to drink it all in; growing up at the South Pole, he had hardly believed that places like this, centers of so much knowledge even existed.

'_And yet look the look at the state that Ba Sing Se's in right now. What does that say about the worth of all of this knowledge?'_

The ironies of life could be a real kick in the nuts sometimes. The warrior was drawn from his inner musings by sounds coming from up ahead. Curious, Sokka made his way towards one of the gleaming ivory marble fountains that sat near the center of the Yard.

"Stand up and open your eyes to what's been going on right in front of your faces," an earnest female voice cried out.

"Something is gravely wrong in Ba Sing Se; something has been wrong in Ba Sing Se for a long time. The entire world outside of this city's walls is engulfed in war, and yet we sit around and act like the conflict that's gone on for one hundred years doesn't even exist!"

Sokka liked the things he was hearing and shouldered past university students to get a better look at what was going on. At the center of the ring of students stood six individuals dressed in flowing red and green robes; five of them wore tall dunce caps that covered their heads and garish masks concealed their faces from view. The five in masks carried handfuls of pamphlets which they were handing out around the circle of people. Standing on a box facing the crowd was the speaker, a young woman in a domino mask.

"Some people may ask why we have to worry about the outside world when for one hundred years Ba Sing Se has existed as a world unto itself. Here we have remained, safe and secure. But consider one thing," the girl held up an index finger and let the silence build to its dramatic climax.

"When did the price of security become our freedom to ask questions? When was it suddenly decided that there was safety in ignorance; who decided that for us?"

The mood of the crowd suddenly became much tenser. Sokka looked around; he noticed people beginning to edge away from the demonstration in sizable numbers, as if they expected it to be broken up by goons with clubs at any second. That cheery little thought made Sokka turn his own head to scan the surrounding faces for anybody who looked like a professional leg breaker.

"Would you rather have lies or the truth? _Think about it!_"

The girl stepped down from her makeshift podium to a smattering of applause- Sokka being the most vocal supporter. The young warrior tried to make his way through the moving green crush to get to the fountain; he very much wanted to speak with the demonstrators. He had begun to think that there were no people in Ba Sing Se who felt the same way about the government that he did; he had to talk to them.

The demonstrators, however, seemed to be in a hurry to get out of sight fast. The masked group quickly handed out the last of their pamphlets; once that was done they all went off running in six different directions.

"Hey, wait a sec-," was all that the young warrior had time to utter before the mysterious radicals disappeared into the thousands of migrating students. Sokka hung his head, cursing himself for not being faster. Suddenly, his downcast eyes happened upon a sheet of paper underneath his left shoe.

"_Hel_-lo, what's this?"

'This,' turned out to be one of the pamphlets the masked people had been handing out. The young warrior read through its contents. Forceful writing- spirited, but not in that crazy conspiracy theory kind of way. Straight forward language that didn't go over your head, a headline that jumped out and grabbed your attention right away; Sokka nodded in approval. He was impressed; the warrior had seen plenty of propaganda pieces in the last two years and he could tell that this little piece of literature had been put together by someone who really knew what they were doing.

He gathered up a few other pamphlets which had been discarded on the ground. Smoothing out the crumpled pieces of paper, he compared them to the one which he'd been standing on; they were practically identical. That meant a printing press.

The Water Tribe warrior put his nimble brain to work. Sokka had never been to a university- he had never had any formal schooling, to tell the truth. Yet and still he was willing to bet his Gran Gran's eyeteeth that a bunch of college students wouldn't be able to hide a full scale printing operation in their dorm rooms. And they were _most definitely_ trying to hide, if the masks and physique concealing wardrobes were any indication.

Due to the professionalism of the pamphlets, he also doubted that the students had written the contents of the piece by themselves.

'_Okay Sokka, connect the dots,_' he thought to himself. '_Identical pamphlets mean a printing press. As far as I know, this school doesn't publish its own newspaper; even if it did, it would probably be too hard for a group of people to secretly make that many pamphlets. So, assuming that's the case then things happen off campus and bring in the finished products to distribute here._'

Sokka strolled over to the fountain and sat himself down on the edge, hunching his back to place his chin in his hands. A sudden flaw in his own logic had occurred to him.

'_Making that many prints costs a lot of money, right? Where would they get the funds to organize themselves? A sympathetic publisher or wealthy benefactor; suppose that is the case, suppose somebody is footing the bill for a bunch of liberal minded student. Then what? Would they limit themselves to just being_ a _campus nuisance? I know I wouldn't_.'

Sokka could feel the excitement growing inside of his chest. He loved having a puzzle to solve and it looked like he had just walked into a juicy one. Could there be a group in Ba Sing Se that was trying to crack the veneer of calm over the city? The longer he sat at the fountain, the more taken the young warrior got with his theory.

The young warrior shook his head, physically pulling himself away from his train of thought. He could not afford to get carried away. All that he had was a theory, a theory that wasn't even based on any real, hard evidence. All that he had was just a few things that he had been able to deduce and a boatload of baseless assumptions.

Yet and still, his gut was telling him to try and see if there was some treasure at the bottom of the pit that he had just dug. And his gut had never led him wrong before. Sokka read the title of the pamphlet- _No Sheep!_

He folded up the piece of paper and stowed it in his pocket before standing up. Somehow in between the time he had sat at the fountain and now, the sun had gone down. Another day gone with nothing accomplished; but hey, now he had a reason to look forward to tomorrow.

* * *

"Order up!"

Smellerbee wiped her free hand across her forehead, preventing the little rivulets of sweat from running down into her eyes before reaching for the large cleaver stuck into the wooden tabletop. Regardless of the season, it was always sweltering inside the kitchen of the Fat Lao diner during the dinner rush. Yanking the cleaver from the tabletop Smellerbee scraped the edges a few times on the leather strap hanging next to her work station before she readied her slender arm to decapitate several plump otter-trout lying on the slab in front of her.

"Careful now little one, we wouldn't want you to lose a few fingers," a dusky old voice from the other side of the work station said.

"Not to worry granny, I've got skills with sharp objects," Smellerbee replied with a smile. Granny Lao chuckled but returned to tending the pots full of sauce simmering over the fire pit.

With most people, the tomboy would have gotten angry when they called her little, but it was impossible to get angry at Granny Lao. In addition to being one of the sweetest old ladies on the planet, she was also the grandmother of the owner of the restaurant, Fat Lao. The old woman looked old enough to have attended Ba Sing Se's groundbreaking ceremony and babied all of the staff members in exactly the same way.

Smellerbee sent a few whiskered heads flying before trading in the cleaver in favor of her gutting knife. The tomboy flipped an otter-trout over and quickly sliced open its little pink belly, pulling out the entrails and tossing them in the waste bin. She was just finishing up on her third and final otter-trout when she heard one of her coworkers calling to her from the back.

"Bee! Hey Bee!"

"Yeah, I hear you. What is it Birdy," Smellerbee shouted back. She wiped the fish blood and guts from her blade onto her apron. In the hustle and bustle of the kitchen at Fat Lao's during the dinner rush, it was hard to get anybody who wasn't standing right next to you to hear you when you said something.

The girl know as Birdy- nobody seemed to know whether this was her real name or a nickname- looked up from the filets that she was breading.

"Mmm-mmh? That tall guy's at the back door and you said if he ever came by here to tell you. So, I did."

Smellerbee wiped the offal from her hands and quickly marched her way to the front of the kitchen, tossing quick thanks over her shoulder to Birdy. After dodging a couple of cooks carrying pots of something that was bubbling and no doubt scalding, she made it to her destination. She tapped her boss on his very wide back.

The aptly named Fat Lao did not turn his spheroid form to face her so much as he rotated on his axis.

"Yo Fats, I need to take my break."

"Another break," the fat man said incredulously. "I just gave you one."

Smellerbee rolled her eyes. Her boss was a certified workaholic and he expected all of his employees to be the same way. He liked to use the argument that if he, a massively obese middle-aged man could stay on his feet and work in a scorching hot kitchen all day long, then so could all of them. Smellerbee even agreed with him… in principle; she still wanted her break. When you worked for Fat Lao, you _worked_ for Fat Lao.

And tonight, she was in no mood for the fat man's nonsense. "You know as well as I do that that was yesterday. A new day means a new shift and a new shift means a new break. Don't try to hustle me Fats, I'm not Birdy."

Fat Lao grumbled, but without rancor. Smellerbee rolled her eyes again. Her boss whined some more before waving her out of his sight. The tomboy went over to a sink and quickly scrubbed her hands clean. After drying her hands off she hung up her soiled apron and was about to head to the back door when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Grimacing, the young woman untied her starched head wrapping and tried to fix her hair into something other than the frazzled mess that it was.

The high pitched sound of a wolf whistle made her freeze. She turned to see Birdy and a few other coworkers giving her winks and thumbs-ups, grinning like idiots the whole time. Smellerbee flushed in embarrassment but still had enough presence of mind to flip them all off before making her escape.

She found Longshot leaning against the wall in the alley outside, his lanky form half shrouded in shadows. Smellerbee fought down another blush as she noticed that her friend was bare-chested; judging by the sweat that was beading on his torso, he must have just gotten off from his job as a driver of a rickshaw.

"How've you been," Smellerbee asked. Longshot shrugged- _pretty good, more or less_. Due to their irregular work hours, it had been a few days since the two had seen each other. The two old companions danced around the subject that was really on their minds for a few more minutes, occupying themselves with bland small talk until they had run out of things to talk about (or in Longshot's case, things to give heavy, grim looks about).

It was the tomboy who decided to drop the bomb. "Have you found out where Jet's been?"

Longshot's normally dour face twisted into a frustrated grimace; he shook his head. Smellerbee sucked her teeth and kicked angrily at a scrap of paper that was lying on the ground.

"That guy is really starting to piss me off," she shouted. She really wanted to hit something right now- preferably a certain twig munching guerilla. Smellerbee felt a sturdy hand fall on her shoulder; she looked up into the heavily lidded eyes of the mute archer. She noticed for the first time just how tired the young man looked. The raging girl calmed herself down.

"Okay, I get it," the small woman said sullenly.

"It's just… I thought that the point of coming to Ba Sing Se was for _all_ of us to start over. I mean that was our plan, right?"

Smellerbee felt her friend's grip on her shoulder tighten. '_Yeah, that was our plan. But you should have known. We both should have known that it wouldn't be that easy for him._'

Smellerbee chuckled without any real mirth.

"Shit; I can't even say that I'm surprised. I think that we should have expected something like this to happen."

The trio had been in the impenetrable city for almost three months. Though Smellerbee and Longshot had tried their best to settle in and find jobs, but their leader just could not seem to get into the spirit of things. Even though it had been Jet's idea to leave the life of a guerilla after their disastrous meeting with the avatar, his two friends knew that the war was never far from his mind. Jet's hatred of everything Fire Nation still burned as intensely as ever.

The complete absence of any mention of the war or the Fire Nation within Ba Sing Se only caused the Freedom Fighter to become even more fixated on the conflict going on outside of the great walls. What really sent him over the edge was a rumor about the outer walls almost being breached by the Fire Nation. That had been around a month ago; it was also around that time that Jet started disappearing. Sometimes he would be gone for days at a time and he never gave a real explanation about where he had been or what he had been doing.

A week ago, Smellerbee and Longshot confronted their erratic friend on his behavior.

_(Flashback)_

"_Where the hell have you been running off to Jet," Smellerbee spat angrily, her tiny body blocking the doorframe, preventing her agitated friend from leaving the flat that the three Freedom Fighters shared._

_The leader of the Freedom Fighters gritted his teeth. "I've got things to do Bee!"_

"_What _THINGS_," she shouted, completely fed up. "You keep on talking about needing to do _things_, but you never tell anybody what these things are!"_

_Jet ran his fingers through his hair and sighed heavily. _

"_Look," he began, his tone softer than before. "I really don't have any time to waste tonight. Could you please, please just get out of the doorway?"_

"_No. She can't," a hard voice stated. _

_Jet and Smellerbee's shocked eyes were drawn across the room to where Longshot sat under their apartment's window. The archer raised slowly, his eyes boring into Jet's, sending the other young man a clear message. He would have to give them some answers._

"_We don't object to you pursuing you own agenda, but what we can't accept is your keeping secrets from the two of us."_

_Jet looked angrily from Smellerbee to Longshot, then back again. "Why? You ever stop to think that maybe you two are better off not knowing about what I do?" _

"_Don't talk to us like we're a couple of fucking marks, Jet," Smellerbee erupted in anger. "We've been with you since the very beginning! We're supposed to be a family, remember? Yet here you are, keeping secrets and sneaking around doing all types of foul shit and leave us, _your family_, out of the loop!"_

_The small woman jabbed Jet in the chest with her finger. "Tell me, have you even once thought about the kind of danger you could be putting us in the middle of?"_

"_WELL EXCUSE ME FOR BEING THE ONLY ONE WHO STILL CARES ABOUT FIGHTING THE WAR," Jet shouted. _

_Smellerbee and Longshot paused, dumbstruck; where in the hell had that come from? How did the war fit into all of this? The tomboy and the archer exchanged a quick glance. _

"_Jet," Longshot said heavily. "It was _your_ idea to come to Ba Sing Se; it was _your_ idea to start our lives over. What happened to redemption Jet?"_

_The Freedom Fighters watched as their leader began to shake, muffled sounds coming from his mouth. It took a moment for Smellerbee and Longshot to realize that Jet was laughing. It was bitter and condescending; it was the laugh that the Freedom Fighters had heard him give to enemies who were pleading for their lives. And now it was being directed at the two of them. _

"_I didn't say that stuff for me, I said it for the two of you," Jet said heavily. He was done laughing._

"_For us," Smellerbee squeaked in surprise. She wasn't angry anymore; she was too distressed by the sudden turn of events to be angry. _

"_What are you talking about? We all agreed after Pipsqueak and the Duke left that this was something we needed to do."_

_The tomboy watched as her leader start to say something, but then stop. Jet rubbed his temples, as if trying to soothe a pain in his head that wouldn't go away._

"_After we flooded the valley," he said softly. "After Katara froze me to that tree, I took a step back and really thought about what we had just tried to do. And I was _horrified_ that I could take things that far. But at the same time I didn't feel like we had done anything wrong. I felt justified and if every Fire Nation citizen in the valley had died, I wouldn't have cared at all! I could have lived with what we did, but you," he pointed accusatory fingers at both of his friends. He was shouting now, but neither Smellerbee nor Longshot could think to tell him to keep his voice down. _

"_I could see that you two were disgusted with how far we'd fallen and I could see in your eyes how disgusted you were with _me_ for taking you there. After Pipsqueak and the Duke jumped ship, I saw that the two of you were going to be next; so I gave you an out and both of you grabbed at it with both hands."_

"_Congratulations, you were able to move one; but guess what? I don't want to just pick up and start over and forget what I spent years BLEEDING FOR!"_

_(End Flashback)_

Smellerbee winced at the memory of that night. The evening quickly degenerated into a shouting match and had ended when she had yelled at Jet to get out. The Freedom Fighter had obliged and they had neither seen nor heard from him since then. The archer and the tomboy, while still angry at their leader, were more concerned with knowing whether or not Jet was still breathing.

Suddenly an idea struck the small women. She looked up at Longshot.

"Have you gone to see Lee yet?"

She almost laughted at the way the archer's nose wrinkled up at her suggestion.

"I know you hate that part of the city," the tomboy said apologetically, "but fry-face may have seen him. Just go and ask him, okay?"

Longshot looked like he wanted to argue, but the look on his small friend's face stopped him in his tracks. She was right; the most important thing was making sure that Jet was okay. And no matter how detached and nihilistic he liked to act at times, Lee _was_ their friend. If Jet came to him asking for help or a place to stay, Lee would help him. The scarred young man was their best bet for finding their wayward friend.

"Thanks," Smellerbee sighed before turning to go back into the restaurant. "You take care of that, I gotta go earn that rent money."

* * *

The area dubbed the Killer Hills was located in a spot in Ba Sing Se's lower ring where six nameless streets converged. Most residents of Ba Sing Se regarded the area- rightly, in Lee's humble opinion- as the worst scumhole in the city. If there had been hills in the area at one time- doubtful since the impenetrable was built on was as flat as an iron- they were long gone now. In their place stood row upon row of seedy, filthy tenements and flophouses which jokingly referred to themselves as "hotels."

The poorest of the city's poor were forced to live there; the most desperate of the desperate chose to live there. It was a place where a million bad things could happen to the unwary; it was the place that Lee called home sweet home nowadays.

To be more precise, the scarred vagrant called room 404 on the fourth floor of the Victory Hotel home sweet home nowadays. And he had a visitor.

"So… it's been a couple of weeks since I last saw you. How's everything been with you?"

Lee watched as the muted archer sipped on his cup of tea and shrugged. The scarred man had spent enough time around Longshot over the past few months to learn what some of his gestures signified. That shrug had either said "pretty good" or "You're going to die in seven days."

"That's good to, um… hear?"

Lee still marveled at how the other Freedom Fighters could extract whole paragraphs from the archer.

'_How lame do I sound right now,_' Lee wondered. The firebender had never been able to master the intricacies of small talk; in his defense though, it was hard to keep a conversation going when the other party never said anything. Silence hung like a pall over the two young men; if Longshot was feeling the awkwardness of the situation, he hid it very well. If the archer had been interested in cards, he would be unbeatable.

"You mind if I shave," Lee asked. "I was just waking up when you knocked on my door, so…"

He saw the archer's eyes dart to the open window, noting that it was very late in the afternoon.

"I'm a night person," Lee said quickly. Longshot nodded; he didn't mind. Lee got up and collected his razor, soap, brush and basin; filling the basin with the water he had leftover from making the tea earlier. Setting himself in front of his small mirror, the scarred young man wet the brush and began to work the soap into lather.

"I still don't know why you came to see me, but I've got a guess," Lee turned to look at Longshot. "It's about Jet, isn't it?"

He waited until the archer nodded in the affirmative before he turned back to his mirror and finished lathering up. "Thought so; his is the type that's always causing people problems."

Lee flipped open his razor- in actuality it was a butterfly knife that would do this duty until he got around to buying a real razor- and carefully began scraping the foam off of his cheeks. He had gotten proficient enough with the blade so that he hardly ever nicked himself anymore. That made the fact that he almost sliced his jugular when he heard Longshot speak slightly less mortifying.

"What did you just say," Lee asked, still thrown by the fact that Longshot was actually speaking to him. The archer, to all appearances, did not like having to repeat himself.

"I asked you if Jet had been by here," the archer replied. The firebender turned and continued shaving.

"Nope," Lee said. "The last time I saw him was the last time I saw you."

He could feel the archer's eyes boring into his back; the firebender focused on his own reflection. He grimaced; the fine full beard he had been hoping for had not developed into anything greater than stubble and scraggle on his cheeks, though he did sport an impressive patch of hair on his chin. He also noted that his hair had gotten long again. He resolved to cut it as soon as possible; he didn't want to start looking too much like his father.

"Alright. Thank you," Longshot said at long last. "You'll let us know if you learn anything?"

After Lee assured the archer that he would contact him or Smellerbee if he learned anything. Longshot let himself out. Lee rinsed the remainder of the lather off of his face before sticking his head out of his window.

"He's gone. You can come in now."

Lee had to pull his head back quickly to avoid crashing into Jet as he swung his way in through the window. The Freedom Fighter furiously tried to rub feeling back into his numb fingers and glared daggers at his scarred friend.

"What the fuck man! Couldn't you have gotten him out of here any sooner? I was hanging out there for a long time!"

"Shut up," Lee spat back, annoyed at Jet's ingratitude. "You had a ledge to stand on, didn't you? Besides, it's not a fall from this height would kill somebody like you anyway."

"Wouldn't kill me, but I really don't feel like spending the rest of my life as a fucking cripple, jackass."

Lee tossed Jet the bird in lieu of tossing him out of the window, but let the conversation die. What was the point of arguing about something so trivial; sooner or later they would be at each other's throats again. That was just how their relationship worked. The firebender walked over to where his tea set lay on the floor unattended while Jet sat flexing his fingers.

"There any tea left," the Freedom Fighter asked.

"Help yourself," the scarred vagrant replied, plopping himself down on the floor and pushing the tea set towards the other young man with his foot. Jet picked up the tea pot and began pouring himself a cup after a mumbled word of thanks.

"Jet," Lee said sternly. "Why is it that you suddenly feel the need to jump out of windows when a friend you've known for years is at the door?"

Jet looked up from the rim of his cup and into the face of the scowling young man sitting across from him.

"Let's not ruin things with conversation, okay Lee. It's really not something you need to worry about."

"Don't try to bullshit me Jet," the scarred man snapped. "Smellerbee and Longshot are two of the few people in the world that I actually like. I don't like having to lie to them for you, but I especially don't like getting involved in situations where I don't know what's what."

"What, are you saying that you don't like me," Jet asked flippantly.

Lee snorted. "You can be pretty unlovable at times; especially when you're acting like an asshole. Sometimes I wonder if you're worth it."

The Freedom Fighter sat down his teacup on the tray and looked directly into Lee's eyes. "You wouldn't be thinking of ratting me out now would you, _friend_?"

Lee's ever present glare intensified. He leaned across the tea set to place himself right in Jet's face. "All that I'm thinking right now is that my generosity might have been misplaced."

The stare down between the two young men was intense. An edgy silence fell over the tiny apartment. The scarred vagrant silently sized Jet up for what must have been the hundredth time; he saw that the Freedom Fighter was doing the exact same thing to him. Was this it; would they finally come to blows? Would their volatile friendship finally erupt into physical violence?

Lee prepared himself for action as he saw the mounting tension in Jet's body- if it was going down, then he had to be quick. He had to be ready for anything; had to be ready for-

The sound of Jet breaking wind.

Lee was frozen in place for a second, too surprised to even move. That was, until the smell hit his nose. Lee immediately recoiled in disgust, horror etched on his normally impenetrable face. Jet, by contrast, looked relieved.

"Whew, man am I glad that's out! I had been holding it in since I was out on the ledge."

Lee worked his jaw like a fish out of water, trying desperately to think of something to say. Jet had the nerve to stay there looking smug, not even bothering to say "excuse me."

"You dirty son of a bitch," an irate Lee half-shouted. The Freedom Fighter shrugged, taking the insult in stride. He smirked at the way the firebender's voice broke.

"Whatever man; don't be such a child. Everybody farts once in a while, man."

"That's not the point," the irate firebender insisted. "Can't you even say that you're sorry you sick fuck?"

Jet looked like he was having a very hard time keeping a lid on his own mirth, which only made Lee even angrier. For a second, he seriously considered roasting the other teenager.

'_Better not do it, the whole block could go up in smoke._'

"Anyway, back to the non-disgusting subject; I get that you want to keep this whole secret life a secret, but why is that making you avoid Smellerbee and Longshot? Can you at least answer that for me?"

The Freedom Fighter looked sheepish for a minute before delivering his answer. "I don't know… shame, I guess."

The firebender scowled incredulously at his counterpart. "Shame? You?"

"I know, right? But the three of us got into it and I said some things I hoped I wouldn't have to say and I said them in a tone I probably shouldn't have used and then some other stuff happened after that and _now,_" Jet paused to catch his breath. "I'm kinda afraid to go home."

Lee cursed under his breath. "You really need to consider your priorities. Start alienating your friends and you'll end up all alone."

"I get that," Jet said tightly. "I really do; but what I'm doing is important!"

Lee groaned; it was the same groan he always gave when Jet started to get all preachy. As usual, the Freedom Fighter paid him no mind. The scarred vagrant didn't give a damn whether or not the Fire Nation took over the world; his situation wouldn't change a bit. He would be criminal and traitor no matter what.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a lot that's wrong with the world. In my own little way, I like to think that I'm hitting back at our enemies."

'Your _enemies, maybe_,' Lee thought.

It wasn't that Lee still held some degree of loyalty to his homeland. The firebender no longer considered himself a Son of the Fire Nation; he had almost as many reasons to hate the land of his birth as Jet did. The plain fact of the matter was that Lee was through with fighting for a cause.

The only enemies he had now were the people who wanted to lock him inside of a cage or kill him; what country those people came from was irrelevant. He had told Jet as much before; it hadn't ended well. The Freedom Fighter lived off of his hatred of the Fire Nation the way normal people lived off of food and water; he just couldn't understand his scarred friend's ambivalent attitude towards the war.

"Just so you know, I'm _not_ trying to get mixed up in whatever social crusade you're on," Lee said as bluntly as possible. Jet looked annoyed and shook his head.

"Don't try to patronize me man," the Freedom Fighter said. "You and I both know that you're already a part of it, even if you are keeping to the edges."

Jet rose to his feet and looked down at the still seated vagrant. "And don't try to act like you're not getting anything from me either; the '_generosity'_ isn't all one sided, y'know?"

Lee winced at having his own words thrown back in his face like that. He still nodded his head in understanding; he was helping Jet keep his secrets, but he wasn't doing it for free. The fact that he was 

getting something out of their deal was the only reason that he hadn't squawked to Longshot and Smellerbee about Jet's location; twig-boy knew as much and was careful not to be _too_ obnoxious when Lee was around. They each had a hold over each other which they used to keep their opposite in line.

"Guess I'll show myself out," Jet said, walking past the still seated Lee. "Someday you're going to realize that the world is bigger than one person Lee."

"Someday _you're_ going to wise up Jet."

The firebender watched the door close behind the Freedom Fighter; he didn't waste time dwelling on what Jet had said. Jet could keep trying to make a difference if he wanted to; if that's what he wanted to do with his life, then that was his business. Lee quickly put the Freedom Fighter out of his mind. Tonight, the scarred vagrant had more important things to do.

* * *

"Unnnh!"

"Just lie back and relax."

Jin didn't like it when they were gentle; she knew it was weird and she knew that if she told any of the other girls they'd think that she was some kind of sicko masochist. None of that made how she felt any less sincere. Jin certainly didn't _think_ of herself as a masochist- at least not in the traditional sense of the word. She did not get off on being humiliated and she definitely disliked when they made it hurt; some of those guys were just out and out sadists, looking to hurt a woman.

"Hah, hah, hah…"

And yet in a horrible, twisted way, she actually preferred those nutjobs to the guys that came in and cooed sweet nothings in her ears. Doing it with a psycho felt _honest_. The bastards treated her like what she was; a whore. Somebody they had paid to be their toy for an hour. Jin could understand them; she could forgive them.

"Spread them wider."

The ones that she couldn't forgive were the ones who enjoyed playing the white knight; the prince charmings who would swoop down from the heavens and free her from life in the red light district. They would say that they were going to someday whisk her away and take her to live in the upper ring in a grand house with servants to wait hand and foot on her requests. She would listen and get starry eyed and act as if she believed that they were going to be her saviors; inflate their egos and increase her chances of getting a nice tip. And then they would leave and she would go wash up and wait on the next one.

"That feels so good…"

Liars; every last one of them. When she had been new to the game, she had believed them. She had hopes and foolish dreams about falling in love and having somebody rescue her from the life she had been forced into. They were lies; nobody was coming to save her. She would never be a mother; she would never be a wife.

She hated the liars; they hurt her more than any punch or bite she had ever gotten from one of the bastards.

"Oh Lee, Lee…"

Part of the reason why she liked Lee so much was because he wasn't a liar; another weird thing to say! He was in all likelihood a thief or a murderer or both, but at least he wasn't one of the liars. He wasn't one of the nutjobs either; he was damn near perfect.

"Nnngh, ah, aaaaahh…"

Lee was a regular at the brothel; their first session had been around a month ago. The scar-faced stranger hadn't been very talkative at first, but gradually, he opened up. During their time together he was… forceful, but not in the same way as those wackos who slammed into her like they were trying to rape her.

'_Maybe they are,_' she thought to herself. Jin shuddered at the thought in spite of the rather awkward position she found herself in at the moment.

"What's wrong," her scar faced client asked, breathless. He seemed genuinely concerned.

"Nothing," she replied. "Just do it slowly."

And for a wonder, he did slow down. She felt his length ease its way out; she felt him idling at her entrance, teasing her lips before he slowly sheathed himself up to the hilt. Jin sighed softly. Okay, so maybe she had been a bit too hasty before; gentle could be good- damn good- provided the right person was doing it.

'_This is how it is to feel like a woman, not just a hole in a mattress._'

Her breath hitched in her throat as she felt him leaving her again. When he was almost all the way out, she tightened up and began to rotate her hips around its head. Lee's startled moan at her unexpected movements brought a wicked smile on Jin's face. She raised her head and looked back at the young man who was mounting her.

She saw a spark alight her scarred client's eyes; Lee's hands grabbed handfuls of Jin's hair and tugged, pulling her neck back so far that she was staring up at the ceiling.

"Aaahhhnn, mmm! Harder!"

She could feel her release building and building until finally, the young woman felt something give. The earth stopped; she shuddered and collapsed into her pillow face first. She felt Lee slide out of her and heard him thud down onto the floor behind her. The two young people struggled to catch their breaths.

"Keep putting out like that and I may just decide to keep you around," Jin quipped, letting her whole body sink down onto the floor. Lee snorted at her lame joke before laying his head on her sweat slickened back.

"Seriously," the young woman said quickly. "This may come as a shock to you, but orgasms can be kind of hard to come by in this business."

Her snarky comment was enough to force a surprised laugh out of her scarred client. "Nice to know that _somebody_ appreciates me," the scarred teen said heavily.

"Uh-oh, what's wrong," Jin asked, not liking the sudden change in the scarred man's tone. "Having troubles with the little lady?"

The scarred vagrant snorted derisively. "You know you're the only woman in my life Jin."

"That's what they all say," she giggled and effectively ignored how happy that statement made her.

"But seriously," Jin said, getting the conversation back onto the topic of her orgasms, "sometimes- like just now- its fun. Most of the time though, it's just work,"

'_And sometimes it can be hell on earth.'_

She kept that little tidbit of information to herself; she didn't think that Lee would mind, but she wasn't getting paid to talk about her problems. People went to prostitutes to make _themselves_ feel better, not the other way around.

She shivered as she felt his lips planting butterfly kisses in the small of her back. "Do you mind," she said playfully. "I'm trying to bask in this afterglow like a normal person. Give me a few minutes."

Lee let out a frustrated sigh that put in her mind the image of a child who had been told that he couldn't go outside to play until he had finished his homework. The young man stood and walked over to where his clothes were heaped on the floor underneath the open window. Jin took in the sight of his sweat slickened body with an eye of someone who had an expert's familiarity with the male form; she could feel herself heating up already.

Jin quickly raised her hands to catch something that her scarred client threw at her. She opened her hands and gasped. It was an ankle bracelet; gold chain link with little hanging baubles of clear blue sapphires. Jin was about to ask him where he had bought it, but ultimately thought the better of it. It wasn't as if she cared about receiving dirty goods, but mentioning that a gift you just received was stolen property was in very poor taste, even for a prostitute.

"You like it," Lee asked a little apprehensively.

For one of the few times in her young life, Jin found herself speechless. "It's so beautiful," she whispered, not really believing that she was really holding something so valuable in her hands. She cast a sly sidelong glance at the Lee.

"What's this for," she asked. "I mean, I know I'm the best at what I do, but…"

The scarred teen looked away and scratched the back of his shaggy head- she thought that he may have been blushing but she couldn't tell in the dim light. It appeared to her that her scarred client was having a very difficult time coming out with what he wanted to say.

"I get that it's stupid to get sentimental over a hooker, but… this is just to say thanks for, you know, being here when I need you."

'_Of course I'm here genius, where else am I going to be,_' the hardened, cynical part of the working girl sniped sarcastically. The greater part of Jin, however, was overcome with the sweetness of the gesture. She could feel tears of joy starting to well up in her eyes; she savagely fought them back down. No matter how happy she was, she stubbornly refused to cry in front of anyone.

In spite of her best efforts Lee still noticed her sniffles.

"Are you alright," he asked, coming over to sit beside her.

"I'm cool," she said, quickly wrapping her arms tightly around the young man's neck. The young man returned the hug awkwardly. Jin almost laughed; the two of them had had sex over a dozen times, and yet he was getting flustered by a hug!

"How'd you get to be so sweet," she whispered huskily in his ear, running her nails up along his spine.

"It comes naturally…"


	14. Chapter 14

_In retrospect, this probably should have been two chapters instead of one, but, whatever. Hope you guys enjoy this month's installment. _

_P.S. I don't own Avatar the Last Airbender_

Chapter 14

Sokka's eyes darted left and right, up and down, scanning his surroundings desperately trying to find some way, any way, out of the dark dungeon where he now sat. Everywhere the frantic warrior looked told him the same thing; there was no way to escape. Cold grey stones met his eye, boxing him in, preventing him from seeing the sun, preventing his escape. He felt the thumping of his heart growing louder and louder behind his ears. His throat became constricted and it suddenly became very hard for him to breathe.

The walls! The walls were closing in on him!

The Water Tribe warrior ran over to the sturdy wooden beams that locked him inside of his dungeon and gripped them as tightly as his hands would allow. This was too much; he had to get out of here or else he was going to lose it.

"Guard! Guaaaarrrrddd," Sokka bellowed in between hyper ventilations. "I'm freaking out man!"

The Water Tribe warrior's cries for release and assistance were met with a hot string of obscenities and a few anatomically improbable threats from the guards down at the end of the hallway. Sokka let go of the beams and went back to pacing the space inside of the cell; he felt like an animal at the zoo in here.

"That's not going to help you know," Aang said.

Sokka looked up at his little bald friend; the avatar was seated in the lotus position at the back of the prison cell, legs crossed and eyes closed. He was the very picture of inner peace calm; Sokka envied the boy's gift for meditation. Completely freeing himself of the millions of thoughts that buzzed around inside his skull had never been something that the warrior had been very good at.

"Those guards are all sadists," the Water Tribe warrior said grumpily. "I mean, a fellow human being who is obviously in some kind of distress, is crying out to you for help and all that you can say is '_go eat a dick!?_'"

Sokka sighed in obvious exasperation and rubbed his temples. Well, it was official; he really, really hated this city!

"Come on Sokka, did you really think that the whole crazy guy act was going to work," Aang said pointedly. Sokka cocked an eyebrow at the avatar's subtle change in tone; could it be that the airbender was a little bit upset with him?

"What's wrong with my crazy guy," Sokka asked suspiciously. "It worked back in Fan Chan when we gave those bounty hunters the slip."

Tired blue eyes met annoyed grey ones as Aang opened his eyes to look at the Water Tribe warrior full in the face. The boy lifted his right hand and held up his index finger.

"First of all, those guys were idiots," the avatar said, to which the Water Tribe warrior could only nod in agreement. Those guys _had_ been pretty dumb.

Aang raised the second finger on his hand, preparing his second point. "And second of all; Sokka, I hate to tell you this but… you're really not that good of an actor."

The airbender winced and he saw Sokka's jaw drop nearly to the floor at the sudden revelation that his acting skills were not nearly as great as he had thought; he didn't want to hurt his friend's feelings, but it was something that needed to be said. Besides, it was Sokka's fault that he had ended up in jail; the Water Tribe warrior would just have to suck it up and get over it.

"Words hurt, y'know," Sokka said petulantly. Aang sighed and rolled his eyes, too used to his friend's melodramatics to take the wounded look on Sokka's face too seriously.

Upon seeing that his wounded look had no effect on the other boy, Sokka crossed his arms and pouted. A protracted silence fell over the cell as the two young men simply stood- or in Aang's case, sat- absorbed in their own thoughts, wondering how in the hell they had gotten into this predicament in the first place. Almost simultaneously, both young men turned their attention towards their cell's only other occupant; a wrinkled old man with closely cropped white hair and a long, droopy white mustache.

The old man was currently nuzzled in a corner, snoring away as if he had not a care in the world. Aang looked from the old man to Sokka accusingly; Sokka suddenly found something very interesting to look at on the ceiling.

"Vagrant Aang and Sokka of the Water Tribe!"

Both young men in question turned to look outside of their cell when they heard their names called, grimacing slightly at being called a vagrant. Sokka stepped up to the cell door.

"I'm Sokka, what's going on?"

"You've made bail," the guard said simply.

"What's up," Aang said, coming to stand next to the Water Tribe warrior.

"He's saying we made bail," Sokka replied, shrugging his shoulders. The airbender was about to ask how when he caught sight of who was standing behind the guard; it was Katara and Toph. The blind girl wore an amused smirk on her face while Katara…

Aang shuddered involuntarily; Katara looked pissed. Her glare was cold enough to freeze the blood in the veins of both young men. Aang wished he could just sink down into the earth-entirely possible for him, given the fact that the entire cell was made of stone- to escape that look she was giving them. The only thing that kept him from doing so was the knowledge that when he eventually came back up, he would be in even more trouble.

"Could you hold off on opening the cell for a few minutes," Katara asked the guard, her eyes never leaving the two young men locked inside of the cell, a hard edge in her voice.

"I'd like to ask my idiot brother and my idiot friend just what exactly they're doing in here."

The guard shrugged; "Do what you want," he said. It was a pretty irregular request, but their bail had already been posted, so it really had nothing to do with him.

"Just call for me when you're ready to leave," the man said before heading back down the hall to his desk. After signaling her acknowledgement, Katara turned her attention back fully on to the two young men inside of the cell.

Sokka and Aang shrank back and began looking everywhere other than in Katara's direction. The waterbender crossed her arms and placed an expression more befitting of an elderly matron than a girl of fifteen; for the first time Sokka noticed just how much his sister looked like their Gran Gran.

"So… how'd you know that we had gotten locked up," Sokka said at last. By his own estimation they had been arrested around three hours ago; he was genuinely curious about how Toph and his sister had found out about it so fast.

"Joo-Dee was kind enough to give us a heads up," Toph said with a smirk; she was enjoying this situation immensely. Sure, she had had to get up at an _ungodly_ early hour, but it was more than worth losing a few hours of sleep to be a witness to a situation like this; it wasn't everyday that you got to bail _the_ _avatar_ out of jail.

Sokka raised an eyebrow at Toph's answer; they had been told by Joo-Dee? How did that zombie learn that they had been arrested; how had she known which stationhouse they were being kept in? Sokka glanced at Aang and saw the shorter boy looking back up at him with a concerned look in his eyes. It seemed like they were following the same train of thought.

"I think the more important question is, how exactly the two of you got arrested in the first place! Really? Breaking and entering? Is that what we do now guys," Katara said harshly. It was easy to tell that her patience was wearing dangerously thin.

Sokka tried to put on his best brotherly smile. "Come on sis, it's late. Can't you just let us out of here and we can all go back to the upper ring and talk about things in the morning."

For extra measure, the Water Tribe warrior threw in a trembling bottom lip and big, watery eel-puppy eyes. His sister was unmoved.

"No," the waterbender said bluntly, saying volumes with only one syllable.

"Not at all?"

"Not. At. All. You tell us now, or we're leaving you here to rot."

Toph's smirk had at this point grown into a full blown grin. "You heard the lady; now make with the story. And it better be good."

Sokka and Aang looked at each other.

"I guess I'll start it off," the Water Tribe warrior said. "You see, what had happened was…."

* * *

_(Nine Days Ago)_

The early morning sun creeped silently between the slats in the window shades, casting their soft glow into the confines of a stately townhouse which sat alongside a wide promenade in Ba Sing Se's upper ring. On a normal day, a certain Water Tribe youth would regard these sunbeams with a distaste usually reserved for overcooked sea prunes or Fire Nation costal raiders; they were mortal enemies who invaded his dreams and prematurely removed him from his well deserved rest. This particular morning, however, was different.

Sokka, in defiance of his "Snoozles" moniker, was already fully awake and prepared for the day ahead. In the dim light, the Water Tribe warrior cupped his chin in his hand and surveyed his equipment to see if he had forgotten anything he might need. He didn't have to survey for very long; there wasn't all that much to look at.

Laid out on the floor in front of the kneeling warrior were the items that he would need in order to successfully infiltrate the student body of Ba Sing Se University. Since Sokka found himself trying to run to ground an organization which went to some pretty impressive lengths in order to keep the identities of their members a secret, he had decided that it would be prudent for him to attract as little attention to himself as possible. To that end, the Water Tribe youth had obtained:

A scholastic ledger complete with a full set of writing quills and several small containers of ink

Two hardbound history books that he had found lying, unused and dusty, in the guest house's study (perfect reading material for the studious academic)

One of those large cloth satchels that could be slung over his shoulder like a messenger bag (perfect for carrying all of his stuff) and finally

The official uniform of Ba Sing Se University; a long, dark green scholastic robe, black cloth pants- slightly baggy- and black cloth loafers for his feet- he wished he could wear his boots, but they would throw off his whole look- and last but not least, a pair of fake spectacles

Sokka grinned to himself; the glasses had been a personal touch he had thought up. The pair that he had bought was purposefully a size too big for his face, forcing him to constantly have to push them up the bridge of his nose to keep them from falling off; it gave him that extra-nerdy appearance that he was going for.

It had been two days since Sokka had made his visit to the campus of Ba Sing Se University and witnessed the demonstration by the mysterious activists. Since then, the young man had been consumed with a burning curiosity to find out about their group. The fact that there was an organization that dared to go against the dictates of the Earth Kingdom government and actually acknowledged that there was a war going on intrigued him.

Sokka had spent weeks talking the ears off of anyone who would listen about the Day of Black Sun and his invasion plans and had been stonewalled at every turn. He was, understandably, thrilled by the idea that he was not alone in his concerns about the Fire Nation and the need to take action. A small remnant of the enthusiasm that he had carried with him when the gang had first entered Ba Sing Se was beginning to grow inside of his chest.

Still, Sokka was a proud son of the Water Tribe and of all the virtues that his people held dear, one of the most important was common sense. The young warrior refused let blind enthusiasm guide him; information comes before action.

'_When on a mission to gather information, it is best to do it incognito,_' Sokka thought to himself.

The young man grinned at his own tidbit of espionage wisdom. On the off-chance that he actually survived the war, he might write a book full of similar "Sokkaisms."

'_What would I name it though? Um, oh, I know! What about… _The Art of War_!_'

The young man kicked the name around inside of his head a few times before finally deciding that naming his book _The Art of War_ would be a bit too melodramatic; he resolved to think of a better title in his free time. The Water Tribe warrior gave his equipment another onceover.

Sokka nodded to himself one final time; he was ready for today.

_(Eight Days Ago; Sokka on the Bench)_

The midday sun found Sokka of the Water Tribe sitting on one of the many nondescript benches outside of the Ji-Eun-Shu Memorial Library; the disguised warrior took out the box lunch that he had bought earlier that morning at the student union and bit a large chunk out of a surprisingly tasty sandwich made out of some type of smoked fish. To the torrent of students that walked past him, Sokka seemed like nothing more than a fellow student who was grabbing a quick bite to eat before having to rush off to his afternoon classes.

Appearances however were deceiving. If anyone of the people matriculating back and forth from class to class had actually paused long enough to take notice, they would have seen that the dark skinned student with the nerdy glasses was still occupying the same bench that they had seen him on when they passed by the library that morning. In truth, Sokka had been sitting on that same bench for a full _six hours_. To be perfectly honest; he was getting sick of sitting there.

The Water Tribe warrior took another bite out of his sandwich, swallowing his frustrations along with the bread and meat, thinking back on how he had ended up having to sit here like this.

_(Flashback, The Day Before) _

_Sokka had no idea who the people in the costumes were; the girl in the domino mask was the only one whose face wasn't completely obscured and the robes that they wore masked their figures completely. The Water Tribe warrior did, however, have some ideas about where to start the search. The students- at least Sokka assumed that they were students; otherwise this would all be a big waste of time- who had organized that demonstration were obviously politically aware and politically active. On a college campus, where do the politically aware and active congregate? The College of Political Science and the School of Law!_

_Sokka headed over to the College of Political Science first and settled in at the back of one of the large lecture halls. The Water Tribe warrior was banking on the fact that since the demonstration had only been a few days ago, it would still be a hot topic for discussion; he was gratified to find out that he was right. _

_Through socializing with the other students, Sokka was able to glean two bits of information. The first thing that he learned was that the demonstration that had occurred a few days ago was not a new thing; apparently, the enigmatic group calling itself "No Sheep" had pulled several acts of civil disobedience in the past. Apparently, what made this last time special from the other incidents was the degree of organization and professionalism the group showed in disseminating their message. _

_The second thing that Sokka learned was that the school administration, from the University Trustees all the way down to the Student Council, was up in arms over the activities of the radical student group; Sokka could easily guess why. Ba Sing Se University subsisted on the funds that it received from the Earth King's royal court; in Ba Sing Se, the government does not take kindly to criticism. _

_From what Sokka gathered in his talks with the student body, the administration had a right to be scared. A lot of students were vocally expressing their discontent with the way that the government was running things and desired change. Those sentiments warmed Sokka's cockles, but his greatest achievement came later that day when he visited the School of Law. _

_After sitting in on a class and suffering through an hour and a half long lecture on the ins and outs of tort law, the Water Tribe warrior struck up a conversation with two other young men who seemed similarly distraught over the loss of ninety minutes of their lives. The two law students introduced themselves as Chen and Ban. Gradually, Sokka was able to steer the conversation away from girls and homework and onto the demonstration and the actions of "No Sheep." _

"_Nia's got the whole administration running scared," Chen said. _

"_Who," Sokka asked, suddenly becoming much more attentive. That was a name that he had never heard before._

"_You mean you don't know? I have it on very good authority that Nia is the one who's running the whole show; she's the leader of "No Sheep."_

_Sokka was, to put it mildly, surprised. He had thought that "No Sheep" was a clandestine organization, and yet these two random guys claimed to know who the leader that organization was. Not only that, but they were treating the piece of information like it wasn't much of a secret. _

_Sokka gave the scholars a puzzled look. "That doesn't make any sense. I was at that demonstration and I saw how far everybody went to hide their identities; how is it that you know who the leader was."_

_Ban chuckled. _

"_Dude, you know how impossible it is to keep a secret in school. Those masks and stuff were more for the rank and file types; those guys are interested in keeping their own identities a secret, but Nia? If you ask her to her face, she'll deny any involvement with them, but she's not fooling anybody." _

_All of this was certainly news to Sokka. The Water Tribe warrior pushed his slipping glasses up the bridge of his nose._

"_Wait a sec, if everybody knows who the leader of the troublemakers is, what's she still doing in school? The administration should have stomped on her with both feet by now."_

"_Trust me, if she was anybody else, they would have," Chen laughed. "Nia is a legacy from the Wah Ching family; her ancestors helped the first Earth Kings build this city."_

"_The Wah Ching name carries a lot of weight," Ban said, nodding in agreement. "With her family's connections she could have the entire Board of Trustees removed from their positions and make it so that they're stripped of all of their academic credentials! No way are those old geezers going to risk that."_

_Sokka had immediately asked where he could find the mysterious Nia; he had been told that she was a regular at the Ji-Eun-Shu Memorial Library, though they didn't know what times she was usually there. They were even kind enough to give a physical description of her, even if it was a bit general; long dark hair tied into a bun, glasses, and a perpetually severe expression. _

"_That's not very much detail, you got anything else to give me that'll let me tell her apart from all the other girls here," Sokka asked. _

_The Ban grinned lecherously. "Dude, her tits are GI-NORMOUS; they practically pop out of her robe! You can't miss her." _

_(Eight Days Ago; Sokka on the Bench)_

'_I should probably name it something that sounds classy like… _Romance of the Four Nations!_ Yeah, that could work!'_

The Water Tribe warrior was torn from his musings on the perfect book title when he saw a young woman approaching the library entrance with an armful of books and papers. She looked to be two or three years older than he was and carried herself with a regal air. She walked like a person who was used to other people showing her deference- in other words, like a noble.

She certainly fit all of the physical descriptions. The bespectacled girl collected her dark hair at the top of her head in a severe bun and judging by the expression she was wearing on her face, Sokka thought that there was a good chance that something large and spiny had crawled up her butt and decided to make a permanent home in her rectum. Plus she…

"Sweet spirits, they really do pop out of her robe," the Water Tribe warrior whispered in amazement. He had noticed that the robes the girls wore were a bit snug in the chest area, but damn!

Shaking himself out of his momentary daze, he got up off of the bench and made his way over to the girl, intent on laying on the old Sokka charm. He'd have her spilling her guts in no time.

* * *

_(Present Time; the Jail Cell) _

"Sokka, do you really think that I'm interested in how big some girl's breasts were or about '_the old Sokka charm,_'" Katara spat.

"Hey this is an integral part of the story," Sokka spat back, indignant that he had been cut off in the middle of his story.

The two siblings entered into a stare down that lasted for a few tense moments; Tophs poorly suppressed laughter added ambiance to the scene. Sokka, as always, broke first.

"Perhaps you had better hurry it along lad."

The old man, freshly raised from his nap, came up to stand next to the two young men at the bars of the cell. Sokka sighed and nodded his head, though he looked far from happy about it. Katara rolled her eyes as she was prone to do whenever her brother got into one of his "moods".

"Alright, long story short, I met with the Nia girl but I kinda got the brush off…"

* * *

_(Six Days Ago)_

Sokka lay in his bed and stared up at the ceiling and sighed. The Water Tribe warrior was in a serious funk.

His meeting with Nia had not gone as well as Sokka had hoped. The girl had been very forthcoming about her own political views as well as her family connections, but as soon as the Water Tribe warrior put forth the subject of '_No Sheep_,' she clammed up like an incredibly busty clam. It was a bewilderingly abrupt shift in attitude; he had gone from a friend in the struggle to an object of suspicion and hostility in under a second. It hadn't taken him long to figure out it was pointless to try coaxing more information out of her.

Sokka had walked away from that meeting thinking that he hadn't gotten anything from the meeting, but now that he had had some time to reflect back on their conversation, Nia had let slip one or two things that he could try following up.

"She accused me of being one of the 'spooks' from the police department," he said to no one in particular. "I wonder what she meant by that?"

Sokka got up from his bed and started getting dressed, resolving to give it one more shot before calling it quits and going back to pounding the pavement with his invasion plans.

He knew that he was probably being foolish, but he just wasn't quite ready to give up on things yet.

After getting dressed in his Water Tribe blues- so much more comfortable than that damn university robe- Sokka hopped a tram that would take him down to the Middle Ring, headed for the headquarters of the Ba Sing Se Metropolitan Police Service.

Unlike most other government headquarters, the Police were based outside of the Upper Ring. The nobility which made up the population of the Upper Ring considered policing a low and common profession. They liked the fact that the police helped to maintain their place at the top of the status quo, but that didn't mean that they wanted their precious Upper Ring to be sullied by the presence of a police station.

It was a short walk from the cable tram station to the police headquarters. Sokka walked through the busy streets of the impenetrable city's financial center, ducking and dodging around people hurrying back and forth on various endeavors. The Water Tribe warrior stopped in front of his destination.

The Metropolitan Police Service was headquartered in a squat, nondescript stone building that exuded an aura of iron authority. After talking to the crotchety old timer who manned the front desk, the young warrior was told to wait in the main lobby until someone came to collect him.

Nearly two hours later a snoring Sokka was shaken out of a deep slumber by a firm hand on his shoulder. The youth blinked his eyes blearily and looked up to see who had roused him from

"Mmmffah," he asked intelligently.

A wrinkled, wide nosed face and a droopy white mustache grinned down at him.

"Good day lad, I am Inspector Pencak Soeharto. You may call me Pencak, or you may call me Soeharto, or you may call me Pencak Soeharto as they are both my name!"

Sokka blinked several times, trying in to take in the sight of the garrulous little man standing over him.

"Mmmffah?"

"Now, for what reason have you come here today," the old man said, seemingly taking no notice of the Water Tribe youths inability to form words.

Sokka composed himself. He decided to go with the direct approach.

"I'm Sokka, one of the companions of the avatar. I came here to gather information regarding dangerous subversive groups operating in Ba Sing Se."

The Water Tribe warrior knew that it was a bit foolhardy to just come out and ask for information of such a sensitive nature, but he was banking on the sense of awe the avatar's name engendered in people to carry him through.

However, rather than sporting a look of wonderment, Soeharto narrowed his eyes dangerously at the young man. Sokka felt a lump forming in his throat; he was beginning to think that the direct approach wasn't such a good idea after all. With no warning, the old police inspector grabbed the younger man by his collar. With surprising strength Soeharto hoisted him to his feet and hustled him into the back of the building and into an unoccupied holding cell, away from prying eyes.

"Who sent you," the Soeharto asked abruptly.

"Nobody," Sokka replied, looking down at the short old man warily. "I came here of my own accord."

"Why," the police inspector shot back. He had a look on his face that promised bad things would happen to the young man if he didn't like the answers that he received.

"Because there's something wrong with this city," the Water Tribe warrior said bluntly.

"A giant drill almost broke through the walls of the city, the Earth Kingdom army is getting it's ass kicked all over the continent, the Fire Nation war machine is gobbling up everything in sight and the government of this city isn't even acknowledging that any of this is happening. I want to know what the government is so afraid of and I think that the subversives might be my ticket to finding that out."

Sokka studied the face of the police inspector. Soeharto seemed to be taken aback by the young man's candor. The man's demeanor changed from barely contained hostility to quiet consideration. At length, the old man spoke.

"You seem very concerned about this, lad."

Sokka shrugged. "You can't expect to defeat the enemy if you can't trust your allies."

Soeharto nodded sagely before bowing politely to the young man.

"I apologize for my rough treatment of you, but I needed to be sure of your motives. So, what can I do for you today?"

If Sokka was thrown by the man's sudden change in behavior, he did a very good job of hiding it.

"Uh, no problem; is there somewhere else that we could talk?"

Soeharto grinned widely and shook his head in the negative. "Oh no! We must stay back here. One never knows who is listening in the offices."

"You don't trust the other officers," Sokka asked.

"Oh, not at all," the old man replied, his voice growing deathly serious.

"The topic of groups labeled as subversive is a very… sensitive matter. It is best to speak of sensitive matters where suspicious ears cannot hear them."

Sokka was disturbed but not overly surprised by this news; it fit the profile of this city to a tee. Fishing through one of his pockets, the youth pulled out the folded '_No Sheep_' pamphlet that he had been carrying around with him.

"Does the name '_No Sheep'_ mean anything to you?"

Taking the proffered piece of paper from the warrior hand, the old inspector looked over its contents. Sokka watched as Soeharto's eyes suddenly went sharp and his body became a little more rigid.

"What is it," Sokka asked curiously.

Soeharto stroked his mustache and looked up at the warrior.

"While I cannot say that I have ever heard of any group by this name, there is one thing I recognize."

The old man turned the paper around to face Sokka, his finger tapping the bottom left corner of the pamphlet. Looking closely, Sokka noticed that Soeharto's finger was tapping a small, crudely drawn picture of something that vaguely resembled a musk-sheep.

"This symbol," Sokka asked. Soeharto nodded.

"Over the past few weeks there has been a rash of break-ins in the Upper and Middle Rings and every time, the thieves leave a calling card scrawled somewhere in the house."

"It could just be a thief with a theatrical streak leaving his calling card," the young man stated.

"I thought the same," the veteran inspector said. "That was until I noticed that there was a pattern to all of the victims. Each of them was a civil servant. Not only that, they all worked in the same place; the Office of Civic Preservation! Also, there is the issue of what was stolen. In addition to their safes, their files were raided."

Sokka felt like he should have known what the old man was getting at but, truth be told, he was lost. In his time spent pounding the pavement in Ba Sing Se, he had managed to familiarize himself with the city's government, but he had never really spent much time in such minor government bureau. He couldn't figure out why Soeharto was treating this like it was such a big deal.

"Sooo… these guys were all government stooges who all worked in the same place; why is any of that important? The Office of Civic Preservation sounds like the guys who scrub the graffiti off of the city landmarks."

"Exactly," Soeharto said heavily. Sokka wore a blank expression; he still wasn't getting it. The old inspector tugged on his mustache and explained himself.

"They all worked in the office which is devoted to the _preservation of Ba Sing Se's cultural heritage_."

'…_those are the Dai Lee, the protectors of Ba Sing Se's cultural heritage…'_

Joo-Dee's words came bubbling up in Sokka's mind; he got the point. That threw things in a whole other perspective; the owners of the burglarized homes had a connection with the Dai Lee. Suddenly that musk-sheep scrawled on the wall went from being the calling card of an eccentric thief into something more interesting; a taunt.

"They're baiting the Dai Lee," Sokka mumbled; it was more of a question than a statement.

"It is possible," Soeharto replied. "I have an idea of where the scoundrels may strike next. I wish to look into this matter further, but I fear that I cannot do it alone…"

The old man trailed off and shared a conspiratorial smirk with the Water Tribe warrior.

"You asking for my help," Sokka said slyly.

"Have you anything better to do lad?"

Sokka scoffed and rubbed the back of his head. "So what's the plan?"

* * *

_(Present time; the Jail Cell)_

"At least that explains who the old guy is," Toph remarked. "Now we know that he's not some innocent bystander who was swept along in your evil plot."

Sokka shot her a dirty look, not caring that she was unable to see it.

"Okay, why in the world would we kidnap a senior citizen and take him with us on a home invasion?"

The blind earthbender made a small display of looking thoughtful, cupping her chin in one of her small hands.

"Mmm… for shits and giggles?"

Fortunately, Katara stepped in before their spat could escalate any further.

"Would you two knock it off? It's way too early in the morning for this!"

After receiving mumbled words of apology from both parties, the waterbender got back down to the business at hand.

"That story explains what you and Mr. Soeharto are doing here," Katara said, glaring at her brother. "But how did you manage to pull Aang into all of this."

All eyes turned to the young avatar. Aang sighed.

"There's really not all that much to tell a few days ago…

* * *

_(Earlier That Day; the Upper Ring)_

The Grand Serpentine Park was a great place to go when you didn't want to be bothered. It was an island of natural beauty amidst the urban sprawl of the Middle Ring. Wide open spaces filled with lush green grass; ponds filled with crystal clear water and brightly colored fish interspersed in between carefully constructed rock formations. Grand Serpentine was one of the few places outside of the Upper Ring that you could come to get away from the grind of city living.

And best of all, people tended to give each other a wide berth. It was a very good place for meditation, which is exactly what Aang was attempting to do right now.

It was late in the afternoon; usually the young avatar would spend this part of his day scouring the city for any signs of Appa, but he had decided to use today to do something that he had been putting off ever since the group had left the Indu valley.

That last journey into the Spirit World had left him feeling strange; not _bad_ strange, but strange nonetheless. This was expressed most prominently in the tickle feeling that Aang felt at the back of his neck. In the past, the feeling would only arrive in anticipation of danger, or when he went near a place that had a strong connection with the Spirit World; it would come and it would go. Nowadays the tickle feeling came, but it never went. At times it would vary intensity, but it never left him completely.

Aang had spent a little time thinking on the subject and had come up with the theory that the feeling was Spirit World related. He had chosen today to get an actual idea as to what he was feeling. The young avatar took and deep breath, settling his spirit and releasing his mind. He was surprised at how easy it was for him to slip in and out of his own body now. Astral Aang looked around.

"Whoa… okay, what's this?"

The avatar had expected his out-of-body experience to the same as all of his others; either he would cross all the way over into the Spirit World and wake up in the swamp or he would wake up in the mortal realm in his astral form. This time, he had done neither one of those things.

Astral Aang was looking down at his body from above; his astral body had grown to two times the proportions of his normal body. Looking down at his astral body, Aang noticed that his skin was was blue and covered in strange runes; additionally, he was missing his lower body for some reason.

'_This is just like that time,_' he thought to himself. What in the world was going on?

Astral Aang examined his surroundings; Grand Serpentine Park. The whole landscape was devoid of any color; he could see people and animals and… strings? The young avatar focused his mind, trying to take in all of the things that he was seeing; the tickle feeling had moved from his neck to spread all over his body. The more he focused, the more apparent they became; there was some kind of connection running through all of the people and wildlife in the park that led back down into the earth. Back down, he realized with a shock, into him! All of these connections were flowing into him, but why?

Aang immediately broke his connection with the Spirit World and returned to his own body. He was thoroughly confused by what he had just seen. The young avatar resettled himself into the lotus position and concentrated on crossing over into the Spirit World; this time he set Roku's swamp as his destination. Aang exhaled and released his mind; when he awoke this time, he was sitting face to face with avatar Roku.

"_It is good to see you again Aang. What is it that you wish to ask me?"_

_The younger avatar described his strange experience. _

"_Do you know what it is," he asked hopefully. _

_Roku looked thoughtful. _

"_Hmm. I cannot say that I have ever heard of anything like what you just described to me. During my lifetime, I never devoted myself to exploring the full complexities of the Spirit World or of my place as a physical embodiment of the Spirit of the Planet. That said, I do have an idea about the connections you saw." _

"_What is it," Aang asked, eager to receive any answers at all. _

"_As you know, the avatar is the human incarnation of the Spirit of the Planet. Every living thing shares connections to each other as well as a connection to the planet. Perhaps what you are seeing are these connections."_

_The younger avatar's eyes widened. Roku's answer made a lot of sense; Hu from the Foggy Swamp Tribe had once told him something similar to what his predecessor had just said. Everything that lived was connected to the planet and he, the avatar, was, in effect, the planet. He could trace the connection; he could find Appa! Aang's face split into a wide grin. _

"_Thank you Roku," he cried before rushing back to his physical body. _

Aang reopened his eyes and looked around Grand Serpentine Park; the sun had gone down during the time he was in the Spirit World. The airbender quickly reclosed his eyes and concentrated on getting back to that tickle feeling state. Once he was back in his giant astral form, Aang tried to remember the time when he found his friends in the Foggy Swamp by tracing their energy through the tree.

'_The last time I put my hand on the tree. Then I concentrated on who I wanted to find, and the connection just sort of happened after that. Okay, let's give this a shot._'

Still unsure of what he was doing, astral Aang placed a hand on the ground and expanded his mind, focusing on his bison. At first nothing happened, then the tickle feeling that covered his body started to feel more intense. The young avatar concentrated harder on Appa, reaching out even farther with his mind, widening the scope.

He caught a glimpse of Appa; his bison was in the city somewhere! Before he could pinpoint the location, however, things took a turn for the worse. Without warning, the floodgates of his mind broke wide. The spirits of nine million people suddenly became open to him, all at the same time. The airbender gave an inhuman shout of shock and was forcibly hurled from his astral form back into his own body.

The world suddenly became a swirl of colors and sounds; Aang's eyes rolled back into his head. He lolled to one side and slumped over onto the ground, blood hemorrhaging from his nose eyes and ears. Miraculously, the young avatar kept himself from passing out. He gulped down air into his lungs and tried to still the frantic beating of his heart. In spite of everything, Aang smiled wearily.

That had been one of the most terrifying experiences of his life, but he had seen Appa. His bison was here in Ba Sing Se!

After dragging himself to his feet, Aang had hurried to one of the ponds dotting Grand Serpentine Park and washed the blood off of his face. Oddly enough, the avatar was surprisingly refreshed after his latest traumatizing Spirit World experience; he felt like he could run around the entire city ten times!

The airbender rose and stretched, cracking the kinks out of his back and headed for the entrance of the park. He left the grounds of Grand Serpentine and headed back towards the lift to take him back to the Upper Ring and house that he and his friends were staying in. He wondered just how long he had been out; they might have already shut down the lift for the night.

No big deal. If worst came to worst, he could just fly his way back up. There was a distinct spring in Aang's step; though it seemed to be fairly late at night, he didn't feel tired at all.

"I'm gonna have a hard time falling asleep," the young avatar muttered to himself.

Two people coming down the street towards him caught his eye; the taller one's gait seemed oddly familiar.

"Sokka?"

The two approaching figures froze. Aang saw the tall one go rigid; yep, that was definitely Sokka. But who was that other guy with him? The young avatar quickly closed the distance between himself and the two shadowy figures. There was the Water Tribe warrior, as expected, and by his side was a short wrinkled man with a long drooping white mustache.

"Aang," Sokka exclaimed, "what are you doing out so late?"

"That's what I was about to ask you," the airbender countered. Aang turned his grey eyes towards Sokka's companion.

"Sorry for not introducing myself. My name is Aang, I'm the avatar."

The old man grinned widely and bowed politely. "Very good to meet you young man; I am Pencak Soeharto, an Inspector in the Ba Sing Se Metropolitan Police force."

Aang returned the bow before shooting a quick glance at the Water Tribe warrior who was trying, and failing epically, to look innocent. The young avatar was about to start in on his questioning, but was preempted by Soeharto.

"Perhaps he would like to accompany us tonight," the old man said, turning to Sokka.

"The assistance of the avatar would be greatly appreciated."

The young warrior looked like he was about to protest, but he wasn't able to get a word out before the avatar had already agreed to Soeharto's suggestion. The two younger men exchanged looks; Aang's questioning. Sokka's was apprehensive.

Aang had no idea what it was that his friend was doing with this old man, but he was pretty certain of two things. One; whatever it was, it must be important for Sokka to willingly miss out on a few hours of sleep. Two; the Water Tribe warrior would be in need his help.

"So, what are we doing," Aang asked.

"There have been some thieves who have been plaguing the Upper and Middle Rings as of late. We plan to capture and interrogate them," Soeharto said enthusiastically.

"Right now, we are on our way to a home that young Sokka and I have deduced would be the thieves' next target."

"Sounds fun," the airbender replied. "How far away is this house?"

"Actually, we're coming up on the house right now," the Water Tribe warrior said, pointing up ahead of them.

Aang looked up ahead towards a nondescript two stories building lying in the middle of the street between similarly nondescript two stories buildings. The group settled into the shadows of a nearby vacant building to wait. If Sokka and Soeharto's calculations were correct, the thieves would make their move within the hour.

The avatar was doubtful that real criminals would fall so easily into the Inspector and the Warrior's pattern, but within a half hour he spotted two figures slinking across the rooftops towards the house that they were watching. Aang made to move, but was stopped by Sokka's hand falling on his shoulder.

"Not yet, let them get inside of the house first; we'll surround them and get them as they come out."

"But what about the owners of the house," the airbender asked.

"Don't worry, these guys never hurt the occupants; usually they're in and out before the people even know that they've been robbed."

"They are inside, we should move now," Soeharto told the two young men.

The trio rushed across the street. While Soeharto and Sokka ran around the back, Aang propelled himself onto the roof of the house next door on a gust of wind. The tickle feeling at the back of his neck was growing more intense as the minutes ticked by. The airbender felt like he was getting the weird sensation that something was getting closer to him.

No sooner had that thought ran through his mind; he saw a figure clamber out of a window and swung up to the roof. Aang tensed as the thief turned and leaned over the edge of the roof, taking a sack being held out of the window by his partner. The other thief, after handing off the bag, swung himself up onto the roof as well.

As they stood, the avatar got a good look at them; they were dressed identically in standard all black thief ensemble. They were both similar in height, though Aang did think that one was a bit more built than the other. Both looked to be carrying weapons of some kind strapped to their backs. They only way that the airbender had to tell them apart were the masks they wore over their faces.

One wore a red mask carved in the image of a grinning hog-monkey while the other's mask was porcelain white and shaped to resemble a frowning devil.

"HALT IN THE NAME OF THE LAW," Soeharto shouted.

The thieves turned to look at the source of the voice. The old inspector had climbed to the top of the roof of the house sitting directly behind the one the thieves had just burglarized.

"WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED! DROP ANY WEAPONS YOU MAY HAVE AND GIVE UP NOW!"

The avatar looked across to the rooftop of the building opposite of the one the thieves were standing on and saw Sokka, his machete and boomerang out and at the ready. The two thieves exchanged a quick look with one another before each darted off in different directions. Red Monkey took the sack and dashed in the direction of a corner of the roof, while White Devil made a dash towards the roof where Aang was standing position.

The airbender didn't think that the fleeing thief had seen him yet, because he was able to get the drop on the man, felling him with a well placed blast of wind to the man's legs. The thief landed heavily and Aang ran to stand over him, pointing the end of his staff at the prone man's neck.

However, the White Devil proved to be resilient. The masked thief knocked the end of the staff away from his neck and aimed a kick at the airbender's shin. Aang saw the blow coming and jumped away; that gave the thief enough time to spin on his back and regain his feet.

"You can't get away! Give up," Aang said in the toughest voice he could muster.

He hoped that he could get the man to stand down without having to resort to violence. White Devil drew the dao swords strapped to his back, making it clear that he wasn't about to be taken down without a fight. The tickle feeling at the back of his neck was going out of control; he was getting the oddest sensation.

His foe seemed to be admitting an aura around himself; he could sense that it was red, deep red and it left a coppery taste in his mouth. Aang felt the fear creeping up his spine; this guy was making him fear for his life and he hadn't even done anything yet!

Whit Devil did not linger after drawing his swords, darting forwards to take a swipe at the young avatar's head. Aang flipped backwards, landed at the edge of the roof and swung his staff in a wide arc, intent on blasting the thief off of the roof.

White Devil skidded backwards, but somehow managed to keep his feet. He prevented himself from going over the edge by burying his blades into the rooftop tiles. Playing on his advantage, Aang darted forward; before he could get off an attack however, the White Devil dropped from the rooftop and down into the alley. Without pausing in his rush, the airbender hopped down into the alley right after the thief and almost found himself gutted on the swords of the White Devil.

Aang retreated a few feet, but the masked man was right on his toes, taking precise swipes at the avatar's body with his blades. The airbender immediately saw his error; the cardinal principles of his bending art were "avoid" and "evade". In the alley he could was limited to three options; forwards, backwards and straight up.

And it was clear that his opponent had no intention of giving him the time or the space to airbend. The avatar nimbly twisted and ducked around the White Devil's attacks; slashes coming close but never quite hitting him. Seeing an opening, Aang used his staff to strike at the masked man's left arm as he was raising it for another attack.

White Devil didn't drop the weapon, but he did pause in his rush for that crucial half second that Aang needed. The avatar took a step forwards and boosted his body up and over the thief. Landing softly, he sunk into the horse stance, raising a wall of stone in front of him just in time to intercept a sword thrust. Advancing forward as fast as he could, Aang pushed the small wall of earth in front of him. The alley that they had fallen in only opened to the street at one end; if he could shift the earth fast enough, Aang could pin the White Devil against the back wall of the neighboring house.

The White Devil had other plans. Seeing the quickly approaching wall of dirt and stone coming towards him, the masked man sheathed his swords and turned and ran for the dead end at the back of the alley. Sprinting, the thief ran up the bare wall and propelled himself backwards into the advancing wall of earth. Catching hold of the top of the wall with his arms, the White Devil quickly lifted his lower body up onto the shifting mass of moving earth.

Before Aang had a chance to disintegrate his wall, the thief crouched and then propelled himself from the top of the wall, onto the roof of the building off to Aang's right. Swearing under his breath, the avatar took off after his quarry.

The White Devil was rushing across the rooftops, hopping from one to another with reckless ease. Aang opened the wings of his glider and took to the air. From above, the young avatar got a wide view of the surroundings; it took a moment of searching through the darkness, but he eventually spied something moving quickly across the rooftops down below.

Aang swooped down to land on a roof right across from the fleeing thief.

"Give it up, you can't get away from me," the avatar stated.

The White Devil's hands immediately went to the blades on his back, but Aang was a step ahead of the masked man. The avatar thrust his staff forward and sent a concentrated gust of wind towards the thief. Instead of holding his ground like last time, the White Devil let himself to be blasted halfway across the rooftop by the wind. Aang watched helplessly while the thief's body rolled over the edge of the roof.

"NO," he shouted. Falling from this height would probably kill the White Devil. He had meant to subdue the man, but he hadn't wanted to kill him. The young avatar rushed over the edge of the building and jumped down into the street below. Aang looked frantically around the darkened street for any sign of the body.

He came up empty. There was no body, no blood, no nothing. The thief had managed to give him the slip! The young airbender cursed himself for his foolishness before flipping open his glider and taking once more to the air, once again trying to locate the White Devil.

After around ten minutes floating up in the air, Aang gave up. Even though the moon was shining down, he could hardly see anything in the darkness below him. An idea suddenly sprung upon the young avatar. Landing in the middle of the street, he sat down and closed his eyes. The airbender concentrated on removing his spirit from his body and shifting into the tickle feeling state (he made a note to think up a much cooler name for it later).

Astral Aang focused on the image of the White Devil, reaching out with his powers and trying to locate the masked man. He wasn't able to come up with anything. All he saw were the hundreds of nameless, faceless human lives that called this neighborhood home.

'_Guess it only works if I know who the person behind the mask is,_' the avatar thought sourly.

Since it was unlikely that he would be able to track down the White Devil tonight, Aang decided to instead focus on two people he could find; namely, Sokka and Soeharto. He was able to find the warrior and the inspector fairly quickly, they were only two blocks over.

Slipping his consciousness back into his body, Aang hopped to his feet and headed towards the location that he had pinpointed. Even without his newly acquired tracing ability it was likely that Aang would have been able to find the house due to the screams and crashes that were emanating from it. Concern for the safety of his friends overriding his common sense, Aang summoned a miniature cyclone and blew the front door off of its hinges.

"Sokka! Inspector Soeharto! Where are you, I'm here to help!"

A moan split the darkness. "Oh Spirits, what hit me?"

"Sokka!"

"You alright over there lad," Soeharto asked from across the room.

The airbender rushed over to the warrior's side. "Sokka what happened? Where's the guy that you and Soeharto were chasing?"

The Water Tribe warrior blew the hair out of his face- his wolf's tail had come undone when Aang decided to blow the doors down- and answered.

"We cornered him, but before we could move in he jumped into this house through an upstairs window. We came in after him and were fighting the guy until you showed up."

Sokka looked at the younger teen quizzically. "What _are_ you doing here anyway? Did you catch your guy?"

"I'll tell you later."

Aang looked around and cringed slightly as he viewed the mess that he had made of things. He noticed the old inspector poking around at something on the floor.

"What've you got there," Sokka asked.

"The thief dropped his sack of goods," the old man replied. "There might be a clue somewhere in here that would prove useful to us; we had best examine it before returning the items to their owner."

Sokka nodded at the old man's astute thinking.

"Well, no use hanging around here. We'd better get going."

As the trio prepared to leave, a sudden thought occurred to Aang.

"Sokka, was somebody in this house when the thief and the two of you came crashing in here?"

"Meh, I guess so. Why do you ask?"

"Well, if somebody was in here, where did they go?"

"…," the Water Tribe warrior replied intelligently.

"Let's not try to think too much about that…"

* * *

"… and that's when the cops showed up," the airbender said, finishing up his story.

Katara massaged her temples and avoided making eye contact with anyone in the cell. A few times it looked like she was about to say something, only to stop herself and return methodically massaging her temples. Sokka and Aang found it surprisingly unnerving. Toph looked like she was having the time of her life.

"Look," the waterbender said after a long pause.

"It's late, and I'm sure everybody is tired. A lot of things have happened over the past week and we've got a lot of things to talk about. But I _don't_ want to talk about it now; all I want to do is go back to the house, go to bed and not think about how _stupid_ the two of you have been."

Sokka opened his mouth to say something, but was once again cut off before he could say a word.

"No, no! I said that we weren't going to talk about this," Katara spat, jabbing her finger through the bars into her big brother's face.

"Do you want us to leave you here, because we will!"

The Water Tribe warrior shook his head meekly. Katara turned to look at Toph.

"Call the guard; we're getting out of here."

* * *

It is a little known fact that there are observation posts lining the top of the wall that encircles the Middle Ring. Get up there on a clear day or night and you could get a view of the city that can only be described as awe inspiring.

Usually when he looked out over the sprawling sea of degradation known as the Lower Ring, Lee found himself struck by a distinct impression of just how unfair life was. You go to all the trouble of running away from the world, abandoning your own name and your own country, construct this great elaborate lie for yourself only to have your past come rushing back towards you.

Lee looked down at the porcelain white devil mask next to him and marveled at how unbelievably unlucky he was.

"That was the avatar."

It had taken some doing, but Lee had managed to give the little airbender the slip by hiding under the roof's cantilever and waiting until his pursuer had moved on. A cop would have thought to check his hiding spot; fortunately for him, he was being chased by the avatar, not one of Ba Sing Se's finest. Thank the Spirits for small favors.

At his side was Jet, his hideous red mask removed from his face.

"You hear what I said man? That was _the avatar_."

Twig-boy was saying that like it was a good thing. For the life of him, Lee couldn't figure out why.

"Sorry, but I lost your swag; had to ditch it when Sokka and the old man jumped me," Jet said absently.

"You got what you came for though… right," Lee said emotionlessly.

"Who the hell do you think I am," Jet replied, patting his chest. Of course he had got what he wanted.

Lee's frown deepened as he went back to watching the slumbering Lower Ring. Better luck tomorrow.

* * *

A pair of cold golden eyes peered across the plains. In the distance lay the crown jewel of the Earth Kingdom, the impenetrable city. They had been stopped the first time, but that was no matter. Winners were persistant and the game had only just begun.

A golden fan, it's beauty tarnished by the faintest drop of blood flipped open and closed. Open and closed. It was time to begin round two.


	15. Chapter 15

_Man am I glad that final exams are over and I'm out of school till January. I've finally got time to return to my stories. I've seriously been neglecting this one in favor of my Kingdom Hearts fanfiction, but I'm back with something new now. Merry Christmas!_

Chapter 15

One would think that Ba Sing Se, what with it being the capital of the Earth Kingdom, would be a place which offered very little in the way of spaces for firebenders to practice their art. It was only common sense to think that way; Lee had certainly thought that way when he had first settled in to his new home. As it turned out, like so many other things in life, what you thought and what really was were two completely different things. Ba Sing Se boasts of being the first "modern" city. What makes a city modern?

A sewer system.

In addition to being extremely large, Ba Sing Se was also extremely old. As the city expanded outward, the sewer system spread right along with it; the centuries of unrestrained urban sprawl created a vast subterranean network of dank, foul-smelling waste channels. Amongst the thousands of miles of sewer tunnels there were many areas that had fallen into disuse. Provided you could find one, they were the perfect place to go when you were trying to do something you weren't supposed to be doing.

"AAAAH!"

A guttural roar of aggression accompanied by a blast of flame echoed around the inside of the chamber. Lee moved violently through his firebending forms, sending malevolent gouts flames circling tightly around his body. A blast of flame from his fist, a leg sweep and a wave of fire; a deep inhalation and exuding the Breath of the Dragon; a sigh of satisfaction as he finished up the series of attacks.

Lee fought to catch his breath, exhausted from his workout. He felt light headed and his vision was swimming; he plopped down on his ass next to his clothes and leaned back against the wall. The chamber was sweltering and Lee was covered from head to toe in a shimmering sheen of perspiration. His shaggy hair was matted to his head. Shit; he was probably going to dehydrate like this. Somehow he just couldn't bring himself to care.

Lee peered across to the long line of lit candles sitting next to the far wall, giving the chamber what little illumination they could provide. Damn it felt good to be doing this again. The scarred firebender let the last bead of sweat run down the end of his nose before pushing himself up off of the ground and reaching over to gather his clothes. He quickly dressed himself, pulled on his boots and headed towards the ladder that would take him back to the surface.

Reaching the top of the ladder, Lee popped open the manhole cover and pulled himself up onto the streets of the Lower Ring; none of the people hanging around spared him a second glance. The scarred vagrant squinted against the white light of the sun. Agni's eye was out in full force today but compared to the sauna he had just been in, the dry heat felt almost refreshing.

Still high from his much overdue bending session, there was an extra spring in the firebender's step as he walked in the direction of his apartment where he planned to stop in, grab a change of clothes, and make his way towards a nearby bathhouse. Lee had become much less finicky about personal hygiene over the years, but walking around in sweat soaked clothes was just disgusting. Right now, the scarred vagrant was feeling good.

It wasn't going to last. Any good feelings he carried around with him hadn't lasted for very long for the past few days; not since he and Jet had had their run in with the avatar.

'_The avatar…_'

The knowledge that that little arrow head was here in Ba Sing Se was the cause of a feeling of dread that had been building in him ever since that nighttime chase over the rooftops of the Middle Ring. It was ridiculous!

'_There is no reason for me to start feeling uneasy. I mean, there is no way that any of them could know that it was me that they were fighting. Besides…it's been years since they've seen me. They probably think I'm dead or something.'_

Unfortunately for the scarred vagrant, logical arguments were failing to put his mind at ease. The uneasy feeling was still there, simmering under the surface. The primal, reptilian instincts that made the fine hairs on the back of his neck stand on end were telling him that something dangerous was coming to get him. And no matter how hard he tried to distract himself, the uneasiness always came back the same as before.

The firebender's grim thoughts were interrupted by his arrival at the foot of the Victory Hotel. Lee entered the rundown tenement and trudged his way up to the fourth floor; he was past ready to get to that bathhouse and have a nice long soak. Later on he'd head over to the red light district and see Jin for some "quality time." Memories of the nimble little working girl brought a genuine smile to the firebender's face. It would be good talking to her again.

As he exited the stairwell and rounded the corner Lee saw a familiar shaggy headed, twig chomping youth leaning against the door of his apartment. Jet threw a lazy wave at Lee from halfway down the hall as the scarred youth made his way towards his door.

"I was wondering when you'd get back," the Freedom Fighter said.

"I wasn't aware that I had made any plans," Lee replied coldly. Jet quirked a confused eyebrow at his friend's tone, but decided not to call him on it; scarface was known to be temperamental, after all.

"Yeah well you've got some company now," Jet replies, his voice dropping to a secretive tone. "Open up this door; we need to talk about some things."

Lee, for his part, was not exactly thrilled to be in the company of the Freedom Fighter right now. The other teenager had been _way_ too excited by their encounter with the avatar. The scarred vagrant had known the Freedom Fighter long enough to learn some things about his personality.

First and foremost; Jet was obsessed by the war and the Fire Nation. He was constantly thinking of ways to do some damage, and having the kid who was supposedly destined to bring down the Fire Lord here in the city was too good of an opportunity for the Freedom Fighter to pass up. Lee could practically see the schemes forming in Jet's head and felt with absolute certainty that he would come to disaster if he were to involve himself in any of twig-boy's mad plans.

Still, it wasn't like the scarred vagrant could just give Jet the brush off. They were partners in crime, after all.

"Can we at least try and make this quick, I was on my way to the bathhouse," Lee said reluctantly.

"Only take a second. I'll be in and out before you even know it."

The scarred vagrant looked at the other teen blankly before making his response. "That what you tell all the girls?"

"Fuck you too," Jet quipped lightheartedly. "When the hell did you develop a sense of humor Lee?"

"New thing I'm trying out," Lee returned while unlocking his door and walking into his apartment, Jet nipping closely at his heels.

"So what's this important thing that we need to talk about?"

The Freedom Fighter placed his hands behind his head and shifted his twig around in his mouth.

"I'm just organizing a little get together. Some old acquaintances I haven't seen for a while have rolled into town and I figure that it's a good time for us to reconnect. I'd like you to be there."

Lee looked at Jet's disarming smile skeptically, trying to figure out the hidden meaning in his statement.

"You're inviting me to a party," the scarred youth asked confusedly.

"The party of the century," the Freedom Fighter replied, already heading towards the door.

"Of course, the party of the century requires a proper degree of preparation. Stop by Smellerbee and Longshot's place sometime tonight so we can hammer out all the details."

Lee gave Jet a dubious look. "This isn't going to take long, is it?"

"How many times are you gonna ask me that," Jet sighed, rolling his eyes and heading for the door.

"I'm not gonna keep you all night; you're not the only one with a life, y'know."

With those parting words, Jet slipped out of the door and was gone.

* * *

"Checkmate. This would be thirteen games for Soeharto, and zero for you my young friend."

"Graah! How do you keep doing that," Sokka cried in frustration, his hands clutching at his hair, threatening to tear out his wolf's tail by the roots.

Soeharto grinned cheekily at the young warrior, amused at Sokka's grandiose exclamations of surprise. The kid's funny faces were always good for a laugh. It was midday and the guest house in the Upper Ring was empty aside from the two of them, the resident benders all occupied with training. The Water Tribe warrior stared down at the Oto board and desperately tried to figure out how the old man had managed to outmaneuver him…again!

"Pencak Soeharto is a very old man," the detective said. "With age comes experience, with experience comes wisdom, and wisdom provides insight."

Sokka pouted and eyed the board with a look of distaste. Since the incident with the thieves, the Water Tribe warrior and the old detective had been hanging out, swapping theories as to the identities of the thieves and trying to map out their next move. During their down time Soeharto had introduced Sokka to the board game, Oto. The young man had quickly taken to the game; it had all of the strategic elements of Pai Sho, but was simpler to pick up.

Soeharto had been kind enough to instruct the Water Tribe warrior on the finer points of the game- i.e. repeatedly kicking Sokka's ass until the young man learned what to do and what not to do. The old detective was impressed at how quickly the younger man was learning the game; given enough time and practice, Sokka could be a master player.

"I still don't get it," Sokka said, cupping his chin in his hand and looking quizzically at the board.

"I always take more of your pieces, but somehow you always manage to sneak a few around all my defenses and take out my Generals."

Soeharto fiddled with one of his General pieces and chuckled at Sokka's expression of deep concentration.

"Experience," the old detective reiterated.

"Soeharto has been playing this game for decades; I have played against other detectives, street constables, jailers, multiple murderers, master benders, soldiers, bakers, street vagrants and every other manner of man that call this city home. The reason that I keep winning is simple."

Silence stretched between the two as Sokka waited for the old man to enlighten him on the reason why he kept loosing. It took about a minute before the Water Tribe warrior realized that Soeharto probably wasn't going to volunteer the answer without being asked for it first.

"So… what's the reason," Sokka asked.

"I was wondering when you'd ask that," Soeharto replied brightly. Sokka resisted the urge to slap himself in the face.

"The answer is; Soeharto keeps winning because he has played your type before."

"My type?"

The old detective nodded and twirled his mustache between his fingers.

"You are a warrior Sokka, and you play like one. You move forward boldly and without fear, seeking to wipe your enemy from the field. And a warrior, more often than not, battles another warrior; you expect me to play in the same way. Soeharto, however, is _not_ a warrior; he is a detective. My profession makes me methodical and I have little use for bold actions."

The detective paused to let the younger man ponder what he had just said. Soeharto began folding up the Oto board and placing it back into its case while Sokka mulled over his words.

"So what you're saying is you're waiting for me to charge forward like a wild kanga-boar and commit to an attack while you hold back watch me until I leave you an opening."

A look of realization spread across the Water Tribe warrior's face.

"You're able to sneak those pieces in because I'm so focused on finishing you off that I don't notice them until it's too late."

Soeharto grinned, happy that his young friend was able to pick up the point so quickly.

"Something to remember my friend," the old detective said. "More often than not, it is the enemy that you don't see that get's you."

"Now, what say we get back to work, eh?"

Sokka, more than eager to put off another ass kicking from the old man, was all too happy to agree. Clearing the table, Sokka and Soeharto made their way from the common room into one of the sitting rooms attached to the side of the guest house. Spread out over a low table was all of the information that the two had managed to gather on the masked thieves, the break-ins, and _'No Sheep'_.

So far the two detectives had managed to compile, in Sokka's opinion, a fairly impressive amount of information. Especially considering the fact that the two of them had had very little to go on in the first place.

"Okay, let's go over what we have again," the young warrior said, staring down at the various case notes strewn across the table.

From the notes that Soeharto had compiled in his own private investigation file, Sokka's inquiries into '_No Sheep'_ and a small bit of conjecture they were able to compile a list of key points.

"Point one: over the past few weeks there've been multiple break-ins in the Upper and Middle Rings. Point two: each of the robbery victims was a member of the civil service who worked in the same place; the Office of Civic Preservation."

"Point number three," Soeharto said, picking up where Sokka left off.

"In every case, there were similarities in what was stolen; in addition to valuables, their files were raided and documents of a sensitive nature were taken from their possession. Point number four: in every instance the thieves leave a calling card, a picture of a musk-sheep, scrawled somewhere in the house. The meaning of this mark is unknown, but it is believed that it is somehow related to the subversive group '_No Sheep_'".

"Alright; from our run in with the thieves, we know that there are at least two of them. They're obviously pros," Sokka said thoughtfully while the old detective nodded sagely in agreement.

"We can also infer from their specific choice of targets that they are pursuing some kind of agenda which runs against the current status quo in Ba Sing Se. Another way they're possibly connected to the group '_No Sheep'_".

Soeharto leaned back and stroked his mustache thoughtfully, turning the information over and over in his mind, considering the facts and playing out theories in his head.

"From what you told me, you first came across this mysterious '_No Sheep'_ group on the campus of the University."

"Yeah, what about it," the Water Tribe warrior asked quizzically.

"It just strikes me that a group that has acolytes at a prestigious university would also be connected with the masked thieves that we met."

Sokka shrugged. "Why would that be so unusual?"

"There are very steep social divisions within Ba Sing Se. The men doing the break-ins are obviously career criminals," Soeharto said thoughtfully.

"Career criminal means the Lower Ring. The intellectual community of this city would consider it beneath themselves to go down there and rub shoulders with that type of crowd. People from the Upper or the Middle Ring would not even know where to start looking for men with the skills to pull off all of these robberies."

The old man stretched and cracked his back before resettling in his seat. The Water Tribe warrior assumed the thinking position, hand on his chin and finger rubbing his bottom lip. An idea struck Sokka.

"A middleman," the young warrior said. Soeharto, intrigued by Sokka's statement, encouraged the young man to continue.

"If the intellectuals of this city really _are_ as snobbish and elitist as you say, then they won't be heading down to the Lower Ring to hire professional house breakers, right?"

"It is as you say," the old detective replied.

"Then there's the fact that these break-ins at the homes of government employees only started a short while ago. This suggests to me that recently, a new person has entered into this whole '_No Sheep'_ war on the establishment equation."

Sokka eased himself out of his thinking position, locking his fingers in front of his face as his thoughts began to take on a life of their own; the hypothetical middleman taking shape in his mind.

"Somebody with enough… I don't know…charisma to make friends with the high society crowd, but who also has deep enough connections with the city's underworld to set the '_No Sheep_' people up with professional lawbreakers."

Soeharto twirled his mustache as he pondered over the younger man's words.

"That makes a good deal of sense lad."

"Thanks," Sokka grinned.

"It's a nice theory, but it doesn't really help us too much. We're looking for one guy, who may or may not exist, out of a city of nine million people. And if he's in the kind of business that I think he's in, then the guy's got to be as slippery as a broiled baby lobster-eel in light butter cream sauce."

The old detective chuckled good-heartedly at the Water Tribe warrior's unique metaphor. The sound of the front door opening and closing, followed by Katara's upraised voice drew Sokka and Soeharto out of the sitting room. The young waterbender, as well as Aang and Toph, were all standing in the common area. It was clear from their disheveled appearance that the three had just completed a day of serious training.

The girls had been subjecting the young avatar to a hellish training regimen as punishment for landing in the city jail. Aang looked as if he were about to keel over.

"There you are," Katara exclaimed. "Good afternoon Mr. Soeharto."

"To you as well child," the old detective said, bowing politely.

"You guys are back earlier than usual today," Sokka stated.

"Just taking a small break from torturing our resident felon," Toph answered with a malicious glint in her unseeing eyes.

Aang whimpered and Sokka sent his little buddy a sympathetic look. Having felt the wrath of both girls individually, he could only imagine what kinds of horrors the two of them could come up with when they put their heads together. Thankfully Toph and his sister had been so busy with Aang, they hadn't had time to do anything to him.

Soeharto noticed that Katara was holding something that was wrapped up in brown paper in one of her hands.

"What is that you have there," the old detective asked, pointing to the object.

"Not sure," Katara replied, "it was just sitting at the foot of the door. It's addressed to '_The Avatar and Friends._' I just wanted all of us to be together when I opened it."

"Well we're all here now," Toph grunted. "C'mon, lets open it up before Snoozles has a heart attack from the suspense."

Before Sokka could come up with a snappy comeback his sister had already ripped open the brown wrapping to reveal what was inside of the paper. Sokka, Soeharto, and Aang gave nearly simultaneous exclamations of surprise as the contents of the package were revealed; a red mask carved in imitation of a grinning hog-monkey.

"That's the mask one of the thieves were wearing," Aang half-yelled in surprise.

"Are you sure," Katara replied.

"Oh, this is definitely the mask. I saw it up close and personal," Sokka affirmed. "But why would they send this to us?"

"Hold on," Aang cut in, taking the mask from the waterbender.

"There's a piece of paper attached to the inside of the mask."

As the avatar unfolded the small square of parchment and began to read, the rest of the group- minus the blind earthbender- crowded around the airbender's shoulders to try to get a look.

"This can't be for real," the young avatar muttered after he finished reading.

"What's it say," Toph asked, annoyed at being out of the loop.

"It's an invitation… to a party?"

* * *

One of the thousands of stray animals that thrived in the streets of the Lower Ring was howling. As the forlorn sound radiated through the shadowy streets, Lee felt the general sense of unease he had been feeling for the past few days increase. The former prince had never been one to put stake in omens, but still, he couldn't fight the icy feeling in his heart.

The scarred vagrant shook himself out of his funk as he walked up to Smellerbee and Longshot's door. He gave a special coded knock that the group had developed to let the people inside know it was him; it wasn't long before the door creaked open.

"What's up Longshot," Lee said, greeting the mute archer.

Longshot nodded a friendly greeting and unblocked the doorway. The firebender was greeted by Jet as he stepped into the room; Smellerbee waved listlessly from the corner where she was seated. The swordswoman looked more than a little put off at having Jet in her home. Apparently things were still pretty awkward between them. You would never know it from looking at Jet though.

"All right, the gang's all here. Now we can get started."

"Started with what Jet," Smellerbee asked in annoyance; she knew that she should be used to this kind of behavior by now, but it still got on her nerves. Sensing the ill mood in the room, Jet put his hands up in a placating gesture.

"I know. I know I'm a jerk and I'm sorry. But I've come on to something big this time and even though I know that you guys don't have to do anything for me after how I've been acting, I could really use your help on this one."

'_How did we know that he was going to ask us for something?' _

Lee, Smellerbee and Longshot exchanged looks, a fact that did not escape Jet's notice. Once again the mood of the room was turning against him. He had to make his case to them and turn things around before they got pissed off and told him to go fuck himself.

"Now, before you say no, just hear me out. You probably already know this, but just in case you don't, the avatar is _here_ in Ba Sing Se."

Both the archer and the swordswoman gave exclamations of surprise, indicating that Jet's news was new to them. Lee felt his gut tighten and the beginnings of a panic attack. Jet felt relieved that he had managed to catch everyone's interest.

"Why would he come here," Smellerbee asked. "And why would we care about that. I mean, we didn't exactly part on the best of terms with them last time."

Lee raised an eyebrow at that little statement and felt his own internal feelings of pressure building. They had met the avatar and his little group? That was one story that he hadn't heard before; it made him wonder about what else he didn't know.

"Apparently, his sky bison is lost and they came here to find it."

Longshot's face shifted into a look that asked the question that was on everyone's mind; '_how does someone lose a giant six-legged airbending bison?' _

The leader of the Freedom Fighters shook his head. "It's not really important how the thing got lost, what's important is how we're going to help them out."

Jet sounded enthusiastic; Smellerbee and Longshot looked intrigued. The firebender wanted very much to turn and run out of the apartment right now, but his legs were frozen to the floor. He knew that it was stupid for him to come here.

"Wait a minute, are you telling us that you know where the bison is," Smellerbee asked skeptically.

"Not _exactly_," the young man said sheepishly. "But I _do_ know where to look; Lake Laogai."

"Lake Laogai? I don't know if you're memory's slipping, but we've been there before. There's nothing out there except water."

"That's what they want you to think," Jet replied. The Freedom Fighter's cocky grin signaled to his three companions that he knew something that they did not.

"It's true that there's nothing on the surface, but those sneaky bastards in the Dai Lee put a whole secret facility _under_ the lake. I've got blueprints detailing the layout of the whole base. The place is huge; it's got enough space to hide ten sky bison, easy. We guide them through the base, free the beast, and give the Dai Lee a well deserved shot in the nuts."

It was easy for everyone to see where Jet's mind was going from there. By helping the avatar get back his bison, the airbender and his friends would owe them a favor. The question was, how would they try to cash in on that favor? That was easy for everyone to see too.

Lee was a criminal who supported himself by robbing people and Smellerbee and Longshot were living a hand to mouth existence as laborers. Since the avatar's group wouldn't-and probably couldn't- give them money, the only one who would be able to capitalize on the situation would be Jet. The Freedom Fighter, and whoever he was working for, would undoubtedly try to use this to weaken the Dai Lee's hold on Ba Sing Se.

"So, you guys are in, right," Jet asked expectantly.

'_Not that he really needs to ask,_' Lee thought bitterly. It was a foregone conclusion that Smellerbee and Longshot would be down.

The firebender, however was feeling more uncomfortable by the second. Work in close proximity with the avatar? Break into a secret Dai Lee facility to rescue a giant bison? Willingly put himself at the top of the Dai Lee's hit list?

"No way," Lee growled.

The assembled Freedom Fighters swung focus towards the surly, scarred young man. While Longshot and Smellerbee wore looks of neutrality and mild surprise, Jet looked genuinely shocked at Lee's statement.

"What do you mean no way? Don't tell me that you're turning cur on us."

Jet's words were harsh, but his tone told the former prince that he was still joking. With a bit more tact, Lee could avoid a fight; being tactful however was last thing on his mind.

"Nobody is turning cur Jet, I'm just not in a hurry to die over something so pointless."

"You call the war pointless," Jet exclaimed, his voice gaining volume, "you call _freedom_ pointless? You really need to rework your priorities man."

"I prioritize things that matter," Lee spat back, his own volatile temper building.

'_This guy just doesn't get it…_'

"And just what the hell do you think _you_ can accomplish, huh?"

'_It's useless to even try…_'

"You think that this is going to help you change things in this city? You think that getting the idiots in this city to acknowledge the war is going to do anything to stop the Fire Nation from blowing the walls down when Sozin's comet comes back? If you do, you're even more hopeless than I thought!"

'_Trying to be a hero will only bring misery…_'

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU TO TELL ME WHAT WE WHAT I CAN AND CAN'T DO, HUH!"

All jokes were over; the Freedom Fighter was literally quivering in anger. Jet and Lee had always had differing opinions when it came to the war and their place in it. These differences had come close to causing a fight before, but what was occurring right now was something brand new. The scarred young man had never openly mocked him before; Lee had managed to strike a nerve and he would now have to deal with the consequences.

"Y'know Lee, you like to talk about how useless everything I'm doing is and how stupid people are to stand up and fight for their homes. But you know what I just realized? You're just a coward!"

"What did you call me," the firebender fired back hotly.

"You heard me," Jet replied, a slightly smug look on his face as he saw the effect his words had on the other teen.

"The reason why you criticize us is because we've got the courage to do what you won't. It's easy to tear down other people, isn't it pretty boy?"

The Freedom Fighter got right into the firebender's face. Lee felt his anger boiling inside him, but along with rage he felt uncertainty. Something in the Freedom Fighter's words struck a chord within him. Was he really a coward like Jet said?

'_No. I'm just, just…_'

Just what?

'_I'm not wrong! I'M NOT THE ONE WHOS WRONG!_'

"When are you gonna grow some balls and stand up for something?"

The blood was pounding in Lee's ears as Jet's words were finding fertile ground in his mind, mixing with his own deeply repressed, consistently denied doubts. The doubts that told him how he was living was disgraceful. Those doubts that would come upon him during the night when he wasn't out roaming the streets and he wasn't wrapped up in Jin's warm embrace; when nothing was there to occupy his mind and he had no choice but to think.

The doubts that rang out through his mind and chastised him in his uncle's voice. Without giving a thought to what he was doing Lee did what he had wanted to do ever since his uncle died; he lashed out.

The punch took everyone in the room by surprise; to Lee it seemed as if he was watching the whole scene play out from outside of a window. He hardly even felt it when his fist struck Jet's cheek, a muted jolt going up his arm. He saw the Freedom Fighter's eyes widen in surprise before they narrowed. The counter came too quickly for the firebender to do anything except take it right on the chin.

Lee rocked back a step, but kept his feet. Before the two could start fighting in earnest they were stopped by Smellerbee and a pair of strategically placed knives.

"I'm not about to let you two fuck-ups wreck our place," the girl exclaimed, "now you can calm down, you can get out or I can castrate both of you bitches right now!"

"I was about to leave anyway," Lee shouted back before making his exit.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

_Tap, Tap, Tap…_

There was the sound. It was not the usual animalistic groans and hollow thumps that were always came through the walls at this hour. Half-asleep, Jin snuggled down even further into her bedroll, attributing the noises that she thought she was hearing to the building settling in on its foundations or one of her colleagues in one of the adjoining rooms.

_Tap, Tap, Tap…_

There it was again. The working girl heard the faint sounds at the edge of her consciousness, but ignored them. There was no one or, rather, there could _be_ no one there to make those tapping noises. For one, her room was located on the top floor of a fairly upscale, fairly secure brothel; beneath her window laid the Sanzu Canal.

There was very little chance that someone could scale up the side of the building to reach her window and even if they managed to pull off that little circus act, the outside of this place had little in the way of ledges or windowsills for a would be intruder-or brothel escapee- to walk on. Thus, Jin decided it was impossible for her to be hearing any type of tapping noises at her window.

_Tap, Tap, Tap…_

The persistent sound of somebody tap, tap, tapping away on the blinds of her window, however, seemed to frustrate the young prostitute's logical arguments for why she should just stay rolled up in her blanket and ignore the sound that she _thought_ she heard. It wasn't as if Jin was tired, far from it in fact. The house had had an unusually large amount of customers during the day and afternoon and the Madame had been "gracious" enough to grant the top earners the night off.

Having time to yourself was a precious commodity in Jin's line of work and whenever she got the opportunity, she always tried to milk hers for all it was worth. Unfortunately, since she was forbidden to leave the premises, Jin's milking of her free time usually only amounted to grabbing a few extra hours of sleep. But still….they were hers to do with as she pleased damnit!

_Tap, Tap, Tap…_

The taps were getting more insistent, coming dangerously close to being full blown knocks. Whoever was out there on the side of the building was obviously getting a bit frustrated that they had yet to gain entry. Jin sighed, rolling over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. It was quite obvious that despite all of her logical arguments to the contrary, there really was somebody knocking at her window.

The working girl removed herself from her linen womb and eyed the shuttered window with suspicion; now that she had accepted that there was someone out there, her mind turned to the question of _who_ was on the other side of the separation. There were very few people that she knew of who had the skill to scale the side of the brothel. The place was built like a prison, after all; none of the girls were getting out and nobody from the outside was getting in- unless they paid, of course.

_Tap, Tap, Knock…_

There was always the possibility that it was just some random psycho/acrobat who was roaming the rooftops of the red light district and tapping on windows in search of gullible wenches to gut like fishes. Jin hesitated as various gruesome scenarios flashed through her mind. She flipped the latch on her window and pulled the shutters open.

The young working girl quirked an eyebrow at the familiar-if inverted- scarred face that stared back at her; Lee, red-faced from all the blood that was rushing to his head and with his arm drawn back to make another knock, wore a look of surprise.

"...Took you long enough," the scarred teen grunted.

Jin, by way of reply, reached out and gave a semi gentle flick to his nose. While Lee hung there and sputtered she made some room on the windowsill for him. Jin patted a spot on the wood near herself; accepting the invitation, Lee swung down from wherever he had been hanging and placed himself next to her.

"What are you doing hanging around here," Jin asked, wincing internally at the unintended pun.

It was a fair question though. Lee was one of her regulars, but every time he had come to see her he had come as a customer. This was the first time that the young man had swung by the brothel and come to see her without paying the Madame first. The scarred young man rubbed the back of his shaggy head and tried to feign nonchalance.

"I was just… y'know, in the area and I came to see if you were busy."

"You…came to see if I was busy," the working girl deadpanned.

"…Yes…"

Lee fidgeted awkwardly, knowing full well just how stupid he sounded. The firebender cursed his lack of experience in these matters. Still, he had come here with a purpose in mind and he had to go through with it. Lee took a deep breath to settle himself.

"I came here to see if you were busy and hoped that if you weren't working, which you're not, that you would… y'know like to go out on the town somewhere… with me."

After saying his peace Lee turned away from Jin, having found something very interesting to look at on the floor. Jin was surprised to say the least; years spent working in an industry that was as cruel and soul crushing as hers had done an effective job of stripping away the childish innocence that a girl her age still should have possessed. She was cynical and pessimistic and hard and cold as the badlands themselves.

But right at this moment she wasn't Jin, veteran sex worker. She was Jin, teenage girl who had just been asked out on her first date by the boy that she liked. She could not remember a moment in her young life in which she felt so… so… light.

"Yeah, that would be great," the girl exclaimed, sleep long forgotten. "So where are we going?"

"You're okay with this," Lee said, a bit thrown by the girl's quick acceptance.

"It's not like I'm doing anything else tonight," the working girl responded playfully.

"Besides, do you know how long it's been since I was last able to get out of this place? It'll be good to walk the streets again, even if it's only for a little while."

Jin got up and began walking towards the chest that contained the few personal effects that she had.

"By the way, you never answered my question; where are you taking me?"

It took a second for Lee, who was paying close attention to Jin's backside as she bent over and began rummaging through the chest, to regain his presence of mind and respond.

"I remember you mentioning once that you always wanted to go to the opera."

"I told you that," Jin asked as she disrobed; Lee ate up the sight of her bare skin.

Noticing the attention, the working girl put an extra arch in her back the next time she bent over. The firebender quickly averted his eyes, an odd combination of arousal and shame bubbling up in his chest; even though he had seen her naked plenty of times, watching Jin in the act of getting dressed somehow seemed dirty. It was like he was intruding on something which should have been private.

"Yeah, you did. Well, it just so happens that the Heifun Theater Company is holding a production of _The Legend of the White Snake _in the Upper Ring tonight. I was able to come across a few tickets."

With a girlish squeal that was completely out of character for her, Jin ran over and wrapped her arms around the firebender's neck, planting moist kisses on his lips.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!"

Lee blushed at the attention and at the fact that Jin was _very_ naked at the moment, her breasts squeezing up against his chest.

'_I just happened to come across some tickets. That's a nice way of putting it,_' the firebender thought to himself.

The truth of the matter was that after the fiasco with Jet- Lee was still trying to figure out why he had done something as stupid as punching the other boy- the scarred vagrant had stomped his way to a tavern in the Killer Hills and attempted to find solace at the bottom of a bottle. Slightly inebriated and with nothing better to do, the firebender spontaneously decided to go on a grand walking tour of Ba Sing Se.

Caught up in the midst of his own problems and teetering on the fine line between tipsy and drunk, Lee had simply wandered aimlessly, eventually finding himself walking the streets of the Upper Ring. Sometime during the night Lee found himself being accosted by a pair of young men dressed in expensive clothes. The two high society boys had verbally set upon the scarred vagrant with typical high society arrogance, ridiculing him for what he was; a scruffy, scar-faced tramp who had no business breathing in the rarified atmosphere of the Upper Ring.

Lee, who had never been known for being an even tempered fellow, who was notorious amongst certain circles for being an angry drunk, and who was already upset over the altercation with the Freedom Fighter, flew off the handle. After beating both of the wags to a bloody pulp, the scarred vagrant had emptied their pockets, stripped them down to their loincloths and tossed them into a nearby fountain.

Amongst the trinkets that he had taken from the two Upper Ring teens were two tickets to the opera; the night wasn't completely wasted after all.

Jin had finished wrapping her simple green robe around her body and was seated in front of her mirror, arranging her hair into a fancy knot.

"I'm curious. What brought this about all of a sudden," she asked.

Lee cocked an eyebrow at her. "What do you mean?"

"Oh come _on_," Jin sighed, turning away from her mirror to shoot the vagrant a sarcastic look.

"In the dead of night you scale up the side of building with virtually no handholds for you to climb on, show up outside of my window, hanging upside down from the roof, to ask me out on a date? I know you well enough to know that you're not the type to pull this kind of irrational, shitty dime romance thing."

Finishing up with her hair, she turned around and looked at the scarred vagrant who was still seated, shamefaced, on the windowsill.

"Besides, you've been acting kind of wonky the whole time you've been here. You've been fidgeting like you've got ants in your drawers. It doesn't take a genius to tell that something's up with you."

"Couldn't I have just been anxious about asking you out?"

"It's not date related," Jin stated with a finality which brooked no argument.

"Ouch," Lee replied, acknowledging the truth in her words.

"You do realize that we've probably spent just as much, if not more time talking than we have fucking, right," the working girl giggled. "I know you."

The scarred firebender walked over to Jin and wrapped his arms around her slim waist.

"You don't know everything," he muttered; the girl noted how his tone darkened and absently wondered what he could be thinking of.

Not that she was too curious; after all, she had more than a few things that she kept from him.

"I know the person that you are when you're with me. That's all I really need to know."

She smiled and pecked the firebender on the tip of his nose. For a reason he couldn't quite place, Lee suddenly felt ten feet tall. He said the only thing that he could think of, and he said it from his heart.

"You're the greatest girl ever."

"And don't you forget it," she said, disentangling herself from his embrace. "Now, let's get out of here."

* * *

The full moon hung, proud and gleaming in the crown of the night sky, shining down on the slumbering metropolis of Ba Sing Se. Far below the shining celestial gem five figures, having made their way through the cramped and twisting streets of a dangerous ward in the Lower Ring, stood outside of an decrepit warehouse entering the final stages of decay. Dubbed '_The Killer Hills_' by the locals it was quite possibly the most horrible place any one of the four teens had ever been.

A world away from the gleaming artifice of the Upper Ring, Aang crinkled his nose against the smell of the place; life in the rarified opulence of the Upper Ring had made him forget the aroma of poverty and destitution.

"This the place," Toph intoned gruffly, breaking the uneasy silence that had fallen over the group.

"I think so," Aang replied, staring up at the dark building. Unconsciously, the young airbender felt a shiver run up his spine; that old place was just plain creepy!

"Toph," Katara asked, "is there anybody on the inside."

The blind earthbending prodigy placed her hand on the ground and reached out with her earthbending. After about a minute or so, she stood up and shook her head.

"Sorry Sugar, but I got nothing."

"So that means the place is deserted," Aang asked, disappointment hanging at the edge of his voice. To think that they had come all the way here for nothing!

"Could be," the earthbender replied, "or it could just mean that they're in there but they're not on the ground. I felt a lot of things in there that're probably crates; they could be sitting on top of one of those."

So there was no way to tell who was in there or how many of them there were? Not the best set of circumstances to avoid getting ambushed.

"Aang," Katara spoke gently. "I'm not so sure that we should be meeting up with these people in a place like this."

"I agree," Sokka said, backing up his sister. "This just has trap written all over it in big block letters. Are you sure about this?"

Aang simply shrugged; in truth he was not at all sure that they should have come here. An old warehouse in den of murderers and thieves was a pretty suspect place to throw a party, at least in the young avatar's mind. And yet this was the place where the invitation that had been delivered to the group earlier that day had told them to come.

"In that letter that the thief sent us, he mentioned knowing where Appa was. This isn't an opportunity we can pass up."

Aang spoke calmly, his voice ringing with tempered optimism. Outwardly, nothing was wrong with him; inwardly, he was the most uneasy of all of his companions and it was only partly to do with what might be on the other side of the warehouse door. Along with sensations from his five physical senses, the avatar was feeling the weight of a multitude of spiritual sensations. The tickle feeling, which the airbender had dubbed his "Astral Sense," was making him feel things that he had never felt outside of the Spirit World.

He had been spending some of his free time honing this sixth sense, fine tuning it and trying to figure out what exactly he could do with it. Though he had been unsuccessful in attempting to use the sense to locate Appa, he had learned how to do a few things. One of the things that he had discovered about his astral sense was that, provided the person's spirit was strong enough, he could feel the impression a person's spirit left on a place or thing.

Aang could feel the spirit of this place; separate from the people who lived here. It was the _area itself_, the buildings and the stones in the street and the garbage in the alleys. It was vague and jumbled and confusing but he felt them nonetheless.

He felt the fear and distrust and violence of the Killer Hills, their miasma hanging over him like a heavy cloak. The desperation that clung in every dark crevice like some rancid fungus made his heart pound, the turmoil of these back alleys made his skin crawl. Evil things had been done here; evil people had left their mark here.

It seemed like everything was tainted. No other place in the Lower Ring, in the entire city, reeked of corruption like this place did. The change had come as a shock to his system and he didn't want to spend more time in this place than he had to.

Taking a deep breath to quiet the turmoil that was brewing in his mind, Aang refocused on the task at hand.

"You guys don't have to come in there with me. In fact, it'd probably be better if you stayed outside. That way, if it really is a trap, then you can-"

Aang was cut off by a rough buffet to the back of his head; he turned around to see Toph and, surprisingly, Katara standing there looking annoyed.

"You don't honestly think we're going to let you go in there alone," the waterbender said sharply. "We're all in this together remember? Where you go, we all go! No exceptions."

The rest of the assembled group nodded in agreement; they were doing this as a team or not at all. The young avatar could not help but smile at them. He said a silent prayer of thanks to the spirits for blessing him with such good companions. Turning back towards the door of the warehouse, Aang stepped forward and placed his hand on the rickety old door.

"Well, here goes nothing."

He pushed; the door creaked open slowly.

"Hello," the airbender called out warily from the doorway before taking his first tentative steps into the interior of the enclosure. The Water Tribe siblings were right on his heels.

He stopped a few steps from the door when he felt something with his astral sense, something oddly familiar. Aang tried to focus his astral sense like he had practiced, cutting out all of the surrounding spiritual white noise and focusing in on the familiar feeling and the soul that was attached to it. Without even thinking about it, the word left his mouth.

"Jet."

Katara and Sokka looked at Aang in surprise, but before either one could vocalize their feelings they were stopped as the Freedom Fighter emerged from the darkness, an impressed look upon his angular face.

"Hey. Long time no see."

Things happened very quickly after the young man in the motley armor made his appearance. While both Aang and Sokka were both stunned at Jet's sudden reappearance, Katara moved with the speed of a bolt of lightning.

In the blink of an eye she was on the move, darting forward, uncorking the top of her waterskin and drawing out its contents in one fluid motion. Aang saw felt something pass by his head; his eyes widened as he watched Jet get sent flying off of his feet from a well placed water whip. Katara rushed past the off balance avatar preparing for a follow up strike. The airbender felt his stomach do flip-flops as a feeling of murderous anger washed over him.

Acting on a sudden impulse Aang reached out and grabbed the back of the waterbender's collar, jerking her backwards. The airbender was just in time to move Katara out of the way of a small figure that came hurtling down from the rafters, it's blade slicing through the space that Katara had occupied barely a second before.

Seeing his sister under attack, the Water Tribe warrior drew his machete and charged forward into the darkened warehouse, swinging the broad blade at the space where he thought the attacker's head was. Smellerbee, her instincts sharpened by years as a guerilla fighter, sensed someone coming at her in the darkness. She positioned her blade in front of her at a defensive angle, just in time to intercept the attack from the phantom blade.

Sokka's arms shook as the shockwave from the impact traveled up his arms. The Water Tribe warrior didn't stop to spare it a second thought, instead stepping backwards and to the side in order to avoid the counter strike he knew was coming. He heard the unsettling whistle of a sharp object coming entirely too close to his face; he might have been short a nose if he had been just a little bit slower.

In the meantime Katara had regained her feet.

"I knew this was a trap," she exclaimed in anger, while preparing another water attack.

"What kind of game are you trying to play Jet!"

The leader of the Freedom Fighters, still winded from Katara's unexpected aggression, sat up and waved his hands wildly, trying to calm the situation down.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Will you just calm down, we didn't come here to fight with you guys!"

Jet's words had little effect on Katara who, to all appearances, was very interested in fighting. The clashing of blades and the occasional curse told that the fight between Sokka and Smellerbee was still proceeding. It was only a matter of time before somebody got seriously hurt; this had to end.

"TOPH," the avatar shouted.

"On it," the blind prodigy replied, cracking her knuckles and stomping her foot on the floor.

The ground rumbled ominously for a few seconds before everyone in the warehouse- save Aang- felt the earth disappear from beneath their feet as they were pulled down into holes. A chorus of surprised yelps and '_what the hells'_ radiated through the darkness.

Aang looked back at his earthbending master and gave her a thumbs up.

"Nice one; I didn't think you would get them all at the same time."

"Of course I did Twinkle Toes, I'm getting more awesome every day," the blind earthbender replied without a shred of modesty, false or otherwise.

"But more importantly now that everybody's stopped trying to brain each other we can get some answers. Oh, and by the way, you can come out now."

The light from a lamp brought some illumination to the area as Longshot stepped from behind the crate that he had been leaning next to, oil lamp in hand.

"Longshot! What the hell man; why didn't you come out and help us," a frazzled Smellerbee yelled from inside the pit she was squeezed into.

The archer stood over her head and looked down into her eyes.

"…Yeah, I guess it would be kind of stupid to start shooting arrows in the dark. But still, you could have done something!"

Longshot merely shrugged and walked over to Aang. Stopping in front of the smaller boy, the archer bowed politely; the avatar, a little put off by the gesture but still mindful of his manners, returned the bow. After allowing the currently trapped members of both factions a few minutes to cool off, Toph popped Jet, Smellerbee and the Water Tribe siblings out of their earthen prisons.

"Okay Jet, start talking," Katara said aggressively, her demeanor promising pain if the Freedom Fighter tried anything underhanded.

Jet shivered; she had grown much scarier in the couple of years since he had last seen her. He quickly came to the conclusion that it would be best to get straight to the point.

"We know where Appa is and we'll help you get him back if you guys agree to help us get rid of the Dai Lee."

The Gaang fell silent; the Freedom Fighter sounded like he definitely knew where the missing sky bison was being kept, but that part about the Dai Lee was unexpected.

"What's your issue with the Dai Lee," Aang asked.

"When you first met the Freedom Fighters, do you remember what I told all of you about what happened to all of our families? We still want to fight the war but you must have seen how the Dai Lee comes down on anybody who even talks about it. If things stay like they are now, it'll only be a matter of time before the Fire Nation takes over. I figure that in this situation, we can help each other."

The Water Tribe warrior and the avatar exchanged a significant look. The explanation certainly seemed plausible to Sokka and Aang; the boys easily recalled the young man's all consuming hatred of the Fire Nation. Katara however, was far from being convinced.

"You guys know we can't trust a word Jet says. He's probably setting us up for something."

"He's telling the truth," Toph announced. Surprised, every eye turned to the blind earthbender.

"I can tell when somebody's lying by the vibrations in their heart; everything this Jet guy said was true."

"At the very least we should discuss this more," Soeharto declared, asserting his presence for the first time. He nodded to the three Freedom Fighters.

"Do you three young people have anywhere else where we could talk? I'm afraid these old bones of mine are crying for some relief."

"Our apartment in over in the next ward," Smellerbee suggested, "we could all go there."

"Splendid," the old detective said, "off we go."

* * *

There were a lot of things that Lee _should_ have been doing right now.

He _should_ have been enjoying a surprisingly fresh rendition of an old operatic classic. He _should_ have been focusing on the beautiful young woman whose smile was as wide as the Great Divide and who hung onto his arm. He _should_ have been giving his full attention to the actors on stage as they played out the infamous pagoda scene. He _should_ have been enjoying his evening.

The firebender's conscience- it chose now of all times to start working again- however, was completely unconcerned with how he _should_ have been feeling.

'_Jet_…'

As much as he had tried and was still trying to deny it, Lee felt regret over what had happened. Things shouldn't have gone down like that; he should never have swung on the Freedom Fighter. Why the hell had he even done that? It was making him feel guilty. No… fuck guilty, it was making him angry!

'_Way to go burning your bridges jackass. Those guys were the closest things you had to friends since…_ '

Since…

The firebender's guts constricted as he recalled that fateful day; recalled the evil crack and the smell of ozone and burning flesh from the blue lightning. Lee's memory of the man who was closer to him than his own father was still as painful and as raw as they ever were. His pain of watching the once great general waste away and die a pauper's death from his wounds and his anger at his inability to do anything about it came roaring back to the forefront of his mind with a vengeance.

Lee just wanted to rip all of the hair out of his scalp from the sheer frustration of it all. What should he do? If the old man could see him now, what would he tell him to do?

A gentle shake on his arm brought his attention back onto the girl sitting in the seat next to him. Lee noticed with a start that the lights in the opera house were on and people were filing out of the audience chamber.

"Intermission," Jin explained upon seeing the bewildered expression on his face.

"Oh," the firebender replied numbly, still firmly rooted in his seat, trying his best to pretend as if nothing was wrong.

The working girl didn't buy the act for a second. Her companion had been tense all night long; he had tried his best to hide his discomfort from her, but she had enough skill at reading people's body language to know that something was up.

She sighed. And things had been going so well too.

"You had probably better take me home."

"Wha," Lee replied intelligently.

"I told you to take me home so that you can go off and do whatever it is you're angsting over."

The scarred vagrant opened his mouth to offer words of protest or denial, but he was stalled by Jin's hand which clamped securely over his mouth. She looked him seriously in the eye.

"I don't want excuses and I don't want an explanation. We can try this again some other time, okay?"

Lee, though recognizing the futility of any argument he could make, still looked like he wanted to protest; a look from his companion stopped all that. He really could be just like a child sometimes. It was clear to Jin that he didn't want to disappoint her; it was kind of cute in a way.

The firebender unexpectedly pulled her into a strong embrace.

"Thank you."

* * *

The room in which Smellerbee and Longshot lived- and where the transient Jet crashed two or three nights out of the week- was barely big enough for two people. With eight, it was ridiculously crowded. Katara felt herself being jostled by random elbows and knees as everyone tried to look at the map that Jet had lain out on the floor.

Purely by accident, the waterbender had ended up standing right behind the leader of the Freedom Fighters, who- like almost everyone else in the room- was kneeling over the maps he had collected on the secret Dai Lee installation beneath Lake Laogai. Katara, however, kept her distance, too busy glaring holes into the boy's back to listen to whatever it was he was saying.

"What is up with you and this guy," asked Toph, the only other person who was uninterested in scrambling around on the floor trying to catch a look at the map.

"It's nothing," the waterbender responded, the slightest edge to her voice.

Toph rolled her eyes. Nothing; yeah right! She was blind but she wasn't a fool. Just hearing the way Katara talked about and to this guy…. Wait a sec.

"…He wasn't, like, your boyfriend or something, was he?"

"Wh-what! No, of course not," the waterbender sputtered, turning slightly red.

Silence and heartbeats.

"I can tell you're ly-_ing_," the blind earthbender said smugly.

"…When you sleep you call your pillow Sokka and make out with it."

"…Water bitch…"

"Garden gnome."

Both now thoroughly embarrassed, the two girls dropped their whispered conversation and devoted their full attention towards the plan being currently being drawn up.

"From the looks of things, this base has only one level, it's just that everything is so spread out," Sokka remarked.

"With so much ground to cover, I was thinking that we could split up into two teams; one to create a diversion and one that can search for Appa," Jet said.

"That would probably work out pretty well," Aang added, looking down at the map of the base. "With this new ability I have, I should be able to find Appa in no time."

"So, when do we do this," Toph asked, obviously eager to get started. "Just tell me who and what to smash."

"We should give it a few hours, our best time to strike would be around dawn," Soeharto supplied. "They should be on low alert at that time."

"Well, if there are no objections then I guess that's it," Jet stated. "To get to Lake Laogai by dawn, we'll have to leave the city at the hour of the Boar-bat so everybody should get some rest while they can."

No sooner was his statement finished than a quick, rhythmic knock sounded on the door. All hands immediately flew to weapons; Jet stood and approached the door warily. He opened it a crack and his eyes widened as he saw who was on the other side.

"You coming," the Freedom Fighter asked hopefully.

The features of the frowning demon mask remained motionless, but Jet could still visualize the face underneath's response. '_Would I be here if I wasn't?_'

"Not. A. Word," Lee whispered.

Jet grinned and nodded in understanding before sliding the door all the way open to reveal the visitor.

"Looks like we've got one more!"


	17. Chapter 17

_New chapter for all of my loyal readers and reviewers; I enjoyed writing parts of this chapter. Others… not so much. You'll probably be able to tell where. Enjoy._

Chapter 17

Lake Laogai…

The odd assemblage of-mostly- young people stood on the beach staring at the grand expanse that was the second largest body of enclosed water in the whole of the Earth Kingdom. It was not yet first light, so none of them could make out the shape of the grand villas that sat majestically on the opposite shore. All that there was for them to see was the placid black/green surface of the great lake; all that they could hear was the gentle lapping of the water along the sands of the beach.

"It's kind of like being back next to the ocean," Katara remarked, more to herself than to any of the people standing around her.

"Remember the plan," Jet announced. "Once we get in, we spilt off into two groups. Aang, the cop and my masked friend break off and start looking for Appa while the rest of us go to raid the records room and break stuff."

Toph grunted in a tone that was probably approval; the blind girl liked breaking things. Most everyone else nodded their agreement; Katara turned up her head and sniffed imperiously, not deigning to give the arrogant young man anything that might be considered deference on her part.

The Freedom Fighter fiddled with his swords and armor; he was feeling unusually tense this time around. Probably because the stakes he was playing for were a lot bigger than what he was used to dealing with. The fate of his entire kingdom, the entire world even, could rest on their success or failure this morning. A steady hand rested itself upon Jet's shoulder; he looked up and saw Longshot looking at him reassuringly. The Freedom Fighter immediately felt his gut become a little less uneasy as he gave his oldest friend an appreciative smile.

"Thanks, I needed that. And you're right, we've wasted enough time."

He turned and nodded to Aang who, in turn, shifted and tapped the blind earthbender on her shoulder with his staff. A gleefully predatory grin spread across Toph's face as she moved into an earthbending stance. Thrusting her arms forward aggressively; the ground beneath their feet rumbled slightly and the group watched in wonder as their entrance to the secret installation rose out of the murky waters. One after one the group ducked inside of the small opening that the blind earthbender had made.

They dropped down from the ceiling and into a passage illuminated by rows of evenly spaced lanterns. Fanning out in either direction and keeping their senses peeled for the approach of any enemies. Fishing inside of his armor, Jet extracted the two pieces of parchment that contained the schematics-the original and the copy that he had made earlier that night- of the Lake Laogai base. After taking a moment to get his bearings straight Jet tossed the copy to Soeharto.

"This is it. If things go wrong, we meet up back at this spot. Good luck everybody."

As the two groups split up the Freedom Fighter grabbed the shoulder of the demon masked stranger.

"Thanks," Jet said in a low tone.

"…Yeah."

* * *

"…It should be the one on the left," Aang whispered, opening his eyes and coming out of the trance state he had been in a moment before.

Soeharto peered around the corner, sticking his wrinkled crown into the well lit central hallway and having a look before quickly pulling his head back into the shadows of the side passage that they were currently crouching in. He nodded to the two other members of the search team nodding to confirm that there was indeed a door at the end of the passageway. The young avatar's mysterious power had yet to fail them.

"The way is clear," he said. "We should move quickly."

One at a time Soeharto, then Aang and finally the demon mask guy darted into the well lit central hallway, running its length to reach the door; thankfully it had been left unlocked. The strange trio darted inside, fanning out on the walls of the passage, ready for anything. The young avatar sighed, letting a little bit more of the tension racking his body slip out; so far they had been able to go through the search for Appa without alerting any of the Dai Lee agents roaming the halls of their presence.

The Astral Sense that he had developed was really speeding things up. When Aang focused, he found that he had a strong lock on Appa's spiritual signature; following it to its source was no problem. There was also the added bonus of his ability to sense the spiritual signatures of the Dai Lee agents that were in the path between Appa and himself. There presences were fuzzy and indistinct but he had a pretty general idea of where they were and where they were going, so they could be avoided.

The young avatar thanked his ancestors and the Spirits of the Winds for his new ability. Without it, he had no idea how he would have found Appa in an installation as large as the one that sat beneath Lake Laogai. The one drawback of the power was, ironically, the thing that made it so valuable; he was able to perceive the spiritual energy of those around him.

Aang cut his eyes towards the old detective as they hurried down another empty hallway. Soeharto wasn't bad; the old man's neutral, almost paternalistic aura was actually calming. The other one though…

The demon maksed guy was behind him so he couldn't look at him, but the young avatar managed the visual easy enough. The young man behind him was a practically bursting at the seams with violent emotions; the amount of rage bubbling just under the surface was staggering. How in the world was he keeping it together?

The most disturbing thing for Aang was that he was getting the feeling that he recognized those feelings of rage. They were surprisingly familiar, but he couldn't quite place where he knew them from. The young avatar shrugged it off; it's not like it mattered much. He was here to find Appa, not discover the identity of Jet's mysterious friend.

"Hold on a second," Aang announced urgently while grabbing the back of his neck. The trio stopped in their tracks. Soeharto and the masked man looked to the youngest of their group apprehensively. Aang closed his eyes and reached out with his Astral Sense, picking up the trail that connected him with his bison.

"Finish down this passage, make a left, go through the third door on the right," the avatar's eyes popped open and he took off on a hastily summoned air scooter. The thief and the detective exchanged looks of surprise but took off down the passage after the exuberant young avatar. Neither one was very happy with how abruptly Aang had suddenly decided to abandon the slow and methodical approach that they had been using so far.

Aang was practically buzzing with excitement; his connection with Appa was incredibly strong right now. The young avatar was, in fact, so caught up in his prospective reunion with his bison that he completely ignored two Dai Lee agents that were making their way down the very same corridor he was speeding down.

Left in the powerful wake of the air scooter, the two surprised agents were knocked off of their feet. Though momentarily bewildered, the Dai Lee agents quickly regained their senses. Neither one of them had gotten a good look at the thing that had knocked them over but they knew it was something that didn't belong at Lake Laogai.

The insides of the base were lined with miles and miles of voice pipes. The pipes allowed the agents working in the subterranean labyrinth to communicate quickly with one another. Running to one of the sending/receiving stations one of the agents flipped open the pipe's cover and began shouting into it.

"Intruder alert! All available personnel to the –_hrrk_!"

The unfortunate agent's warning was reduced to a strangled gurgle by the large hooked knife that appeared to be magically growing out of the side of his neck. Spurts of blood from the Dai Lee agent's pierced jugular stained the walls as the rapidly dying man clutched ineffectually at his partner, futilely seeking help.

Though taken aback by the sudden turn of events, the surviving Dai Lee agent had enough training and presence of mind to look down the hall in the direction that the attack came from. A figure dressed in black, a hideous demon mask covering his face came was approaching rapidly with twin blades drawn. Reacting quickly the surviving Dai Lee agent grabbed his not-quite-dead partner about the collar and with a jerk, placed him in front of himself.

The cunning Dai Lee agent's human shield was just in time to receive the swords downswings. The agent quickly released the now thoroughly lifeless body of his comrade and retreated backwards, attempting to put some space between himself and his opponent. The enemy was obviously a non-bender and so would have the advantage in close quarters combat; the agent needed a bit more space in order to bend. While the masked man was occupied with extracting his swords from the back of his dead comrade, the Dai Lee agent launched both of his stone gloves.

With reflexes almost too acute to be called human, the masked man ducked and avoided the earthen projectile that was aimed at his throat, but couldn't twist out of the way of the one that was headed towards his torso. The stone glove hit with a dull thump; the masked man staggered backwards and fell to one knee. Before the agent could manage a follow up he had to duck out of the way of a throwing dagger that came speeding towards his face.

"Two of you," the agent exclaimed in frustration as he spied the little old man loping towards him.

Preparing to crush the old man into a bloody paste, the agent was caught unawares as the masked man drove one of his swords through his gut. The Dai Lee agent's eyes widened in shock; that shot to the sternum should have put that masked punk out of commission! Lee twisted the handle of his blade, boring the instrument in deeper and relishing in the strangled yelp of pain that came from the man on the business end.

Soeharto scuttled past down the hall after Aang.

"Come, we must hurry," the old detective called over his shoulder, running while wiping the blood off of his knife.

Lee sighed in reluctance, but loped after the old man. The thief and the man of the law managed to catch up to the avatar without running into anymore Dai Lee agents- a miraculous stroke of luck in Lee's opinion. He could hear the heavy footfalls of dozens upon dozens of Dai Lee agents running around in the adjoining hallways. The base was on high alert now and agents would be looking for intruders so they had effectively lost the element of surprise and the advantage of anonymity. When the duo finally caught up to the avatar the kid was trying to shift a large iron door off of its hinges.

"Oh, hey you two," Aang said, sparing his teammates a brief glance before refocusing his attention on trying to get the massive door open.

"Don't worry, Appa's on the other side of this door all we've got to do is find some way to get it open."

Soeharto approached the door.

"It appears to be quite secure," the old detective remarked. Looking the massive obstacle up and down for any apparent weak points and finding none, Soeharto gave the boy a somber look.

"I am afraid that we will have to find the key if we wish to open this lock. If you continue in your efforts to earthbend your way in, you could cause the entire ceiling to collapse on us."

Aang cursed under his breath, not for the first time wishing that metalbending was amongst the powers granted to the avatar. Lee, who was currently holding up the wall, rolled his eyes under his mask. Reaching down into the top of his left boot, the thief extracted his most trusted set of lock-picks. Walking over to the duo by the door, he shooed them out of the way and wordlessly got to work on unlocking the door.

The firebender almost scoffed at how simple the lock to this cell was; in his hands, a sturdy sewing needle would have been enough to crack it. In less than a minute, Lee rose from his crouched position and pushed the door open. It swung slowly but surely on its hinges and Lee found himself eye to gigantic eye with a creature whom he had not seen in years.

The air rumbled as the massive creature retreated a little more into a corner of the room, baring it's large teeth at the unknown intruder that had unexpectedly entered into its domain. Lee was not left with much time to contemplate the beast before him as he was soon roughly shouldered out of the way by the young avatar.

"Appa!"

Aang's shout radiated with a joy that was almost palpable. Upon hearing the voice of his master, the tension in the bison lifted and Appa abandoned his corner as quickly as his six legs could take him. With a gleeful laugh the young avatar leaped the few feet separating them and grabbed onto the bison's head, nuzzling down as far as he could into the snowy white fur.

"I missed you so much buddy! Katara, Sokka, Toph and Momo too; how about we get out of here so that you can see everybody, huh."

The bison made a noise that Soeharto and Lee took to mean approval. The masked member of the trio got to work and soon had released the bison from the restraints that had had it chained to the floor. it was only after Appa was freed that the old detective decided to pose the obvious question that no one had actually taken the time to think of yet.

"So… how exactly do we get Appa out of this cell?"

Silence….

Aang and Lee exchanged looks, each one feeling the same cold feeling creeping up their spines. Simultaneously the two of them looked towards the doorway that they had come through.

"Okay, there is now way that Appa is fitting through there," Aang said needlessly.

'_How the hell did they get him in here in the first place,_' Lee thought to himself. There had to be some kind of trick to it.

"They must have earthbended him into here somehow," Aang said logically.

"Yes, but from where," Soeharto replied. "We are right beneath the Lake. I do not see how they would be able to bring him down from above."

The young avatar shrugged. After a moment of thought, he was suddenly struck by inspiration.

"If not from the top then it must have been from the sides. Everybody, check a wall!"

Upon examination of his chosen wall, Lee noticed that it had significantly less dust and stray bison fur around it than what was caked on the floor in the rest of the cell. Signaling the cop and the avatar, the thief got out of the way to let the only earthbender present have a look at the wall.

"Okay, it looks like this one is the one that things are moved through. There must be a room behind this one."

Aang got up and cracked his knuckles in a very Toph-esque manner before dropping into an earthbending stance.

"What are you going to be doing," Soeharto asked, giving voice to Lee's own question- the whole not talking thing was getting on his nerves, but he couldn't risk any of his old enemies recognizing his voice.

"Pretty simple; I'm going to flip this wall. It should go up just like a revolving door."

His explanation finished, Aang moved through his stance, shifting his weight from his back onto his forward foot. With a powerful stomp to the floor the wall in question flipped itself end over end to reveal…

A room full of surprised Dai Lee agents in various states of undress. Lee fought down the urge to slap himself in the face.

"Bad day."

* * *

"Jeez Snoozles, will you hurry it up already," Toph shouted over the chaos that had descended upon this entire side of the Lake Laogai secret base.

"As if you can't hold them off," the overtaxed Water Tribe warrior shouted back.

He stuck another key into the hole; no luck this time either, damn it. Things had started off fine for the group at first. Sokka, his sister, Toph and the Freedom Fighters had been making good time through the base until Katara happened to look into a room and saw a room full of women sitting in front of a Dai Lee agent with a lamp. He was doing… something to them; whatever it was it couldn't have been good. Katara had immediately jumped in an busted the whole place up.

Since it was part of their job to be the distractions anyway, the whole group had gotten in on the action and before long they went on a rampage, beating up random Dai Lee agents they came across, freeing prisoners, breaking stuff left and right and just being proper thugs. It was a testament, at least on the Gaang's part, of just how frustrated that they had all become since they arrived in Ba Sing Se months ago. Those frustrations were being let out today and Spirits help anyone who tried to get in their way.

Sokka mused that if it weren't for the whole "scary men with stone gloves trying to kill us" thing, this would be quite fun.

Sokka selected one of the devices from the ring of keys in his hand, cursing when it did not fit into the door he had been trying to get open for the past few minutes. A loud crash behind him made him jump, but since no earthen projectiles were currently smashing every precious bone in his body, he immediately shrugged it off and tried another key.

Placing the instrument into the hole and turning, the young man with the wolf's tail was finally rewarded with a _click_ that signaled that the door was unlocked. The door to the records room that Jet wanted him to raid swung open, almost as if it wanted him to have full access to all of the forbidden goodies inside.

"Got it," he yelled exuberantly.

"Congratulations," Toph yelled back sarcastically.

"Hold'em off for a bit!"

Toph scoffed when she heard that one; just what did he think she had been doing all this time? Sensing movement at the edge of her senses, the blind earthbender drew one foot across the ground creating a fissure under the space two Dai Lee agents had been running on. One was tripped up, but the other managed to avoid such an obvious ploy by simply jumping over the obstruction.

Toph place a rock spire towards the spot on the ground where the guy would come down and smiled at the results.

"Man, I am on fire today!"

Toph had been itching for some action for weeks. She had been stuck for so long in that rotten house in that rotten city following all of those rotten rules; not able to do anything except sleep, eat, mess with the Water siblings and occasionally train Aang. This was her first opportunity to cut loose since the group crossed over the Serpent's Path- that thing with the Giant Drill did NOT count- and she would enjoy it as much as possible.

Seeing that she had the Dai Lee agents on the ropes the blind earthbender decided to go on the offensive. Subtly manipulating the energy within the earth, the blind bender quickly found herself a new victim and promptly buried them up to their necks in mud. She summoned a small pillar of stone and began striking it with her hands, sending stone projectiles in every direction. Agent after agent was sent away with lumps.

Toph grinned. "C'mon! Is that all you've got?!"

"Whoa, somebody's having a good time."

The blind earthbender turned to face the sound. She had a snarky comment all ready to go when her sensitive nose picked up a very distinct smell.

"Did you…"

"…Set the room on fire," Sokka said, finishing the sentence for her. The Water Tribe warrior smiled and struck a dramatic pose.

"Why yes, I did. And it's going pretty nice if I do say so myself."

"Um… why?"

He looked at her like she had just said something stupid.

"_Why_ _not_, I got the document that I was supposed to get. And besides, _everybody_ hates fire."

"Whatever," the earthbender rolled her eyes, not giving much heed to the warrior's logic. "We've got this taken care of; we'd better go help Katara and those three orphans."

The Water Tribe warrior hefted his club. "Ladies first."

* * *

Fear; it was a strange emotion. If Katara had had the time to ponder on the subject, she would have thought on how weird it was that she wasn't pissing herself right now. Thankfully for her ego, she was preoccupied with taking down the seemingly endless hordes of earthbenders out for her blood.

"Aagh!"

"Jet! Are you alright?"

The Freedom Fighter didn't hear her, or at least pretended he didn't, and went back to cutting down any Dai Lee agent that came into his reach. Another thing that she was lucky she didn't have the time to think about; having to team up with Jet again had been… difficult in more ways than one.

The young waterbender had long since drained her waterskin and kept an amorphous blob of the life giving elixir orbiting her body, ready at a moment's notice to turn into a deadly weapon. Katara heard the stones speeding towards her before she saw them; experience had long since taught her what to do when she heard that whistling sound. Without even bothering to look to see where the attack was coming from she dropped and rolled, maintaining the control over her snake of water so that it wasn't dispersed when she sprang back up onto her feet. She was running for her life a split second later.

Katara made a break for the wall, zigging and sagging, trying to make herself a harder to hit by any of the projectiles flying around; fortunately, this spacious chamber gave her plenty of room to duck and dodge. Out of nowhere a Dai Lee agent dropped down from the ceiling, making a crater when he landed and pure murder shining in his eyes. Katara skidded to a stop just as the goonish man sent a sizable boulder directly towards her.

The waterbender bent her floating snake of water and sliced the flying stone in half. Wrapping the snake of water around her body Katara immediately sent a return attack towards the earthbender. The Dai Lee agent summoned a wall of earth out of the ground; the water whip splashed ineffectually off of the barrier. The waterbender backpedaled quickly as the Dai Lee agent burst through the wall that he had made, covered from tip to toe in stony armor. Katara immersed both hands in water, creating a pair of large bulbous gloves; she desperately wished for more of her element.

The waterbender steeled herself as the Dai Lee golem lurched across the ground, raising his stone fist to smash her into a bloody mush. The telltale sound of splitting air told Katara to get down; the enemy earthbender, encased as he was in stone, was first made aware of the projectile when the arrow entered the only part of his face that was visible through his armor.

His eye…

"Gyyahhhh!"

The Dai Lee agent reared back and clutched at his face. The stone armor rained off of his body as his concentration was broken. Seizing the opportunity, Katara froze her water gloves encasing both in solid ice. Rearing back, the waterbender sent a haymaker to distracted agent's chin, sending a tooth flying and knocking him out.

Over on the other side of the chamber Smellerbee and Longshot were trying to make their way over to where their leader was doing battle with a group of Dai Lee agents. While the silent archer sent arrows to enemies left and right, the tomboy busied herself cutting open the stomachs of every agent that came within the reach of her knives-her sword had been broken in the first confrontation. She retreated back to the archer's side. Hot on her heels were two Dai Lee agents shouting for the short girl's blood for what she had just done to their comrade.

Loading and firing Longshot grinned sadistically as he managed to pin one agent's arm to the other's face.

"Damn Longshot," Smellerbee mumbled under her breath as she finished off the surviving agent with nip to the Adam's apple. The archer certainly was in rare form today.

"C'mon, Jet's about to get swamped!"

The leader of the Freedom Fighters was quickly becoming surrounded by several Dai Lee agents. The earthbenders were careful to stay at a distance, outside of the reach of the young warrior's hook swords. The agile Jet dodged valiantly, blocking or avoiding the stone projectiles trying to take his head off. But the ring of Dai Lee agents was beginning to close in around him; he was running out of space and out of time.

The archer and the swordswoman were still halfway across the room when they saw their leader go down under a swarm of green clothes.

"NO," Smellerbee shouted in terror. As the two guerillas began to feel something die within themselves the ground where they saw their leader fall exploded into a cloud of rock fragments and dust.

Everyone in the vaulted chamber who was still standing covered their eyes against the debris; Longshot pulled his hat down over his brow. When he raised it up again he saw Toph and Sokka standing over Jet, who was down on one knee. The Water Tribe warrior drew hurled his boomerang and brought down a Dai Lee agent who wasn't felled by the little earthbender's entrance.

"Told you that you wouldn't be able to get them all at once," Sokka quipped, catching his boomerang in his free hand.

"_Pfft!_ Whatever Snoozles."

Toph, Sokka and Jet were soon joined by Katara and the two other Freedom Fighters. Smellerbee ran to her leader's side and helped him all the way to his feet.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Jet coughed and hacked a bloody loogie onto the ground as a means of response.

"I've been better, but hey, can't complain."

The group of young warriors circled up, observing the destruction that they had brought to this wing of the Lake Laogai base. The floor was littered with the unconscious and bleeding bodies of fallen Dai Lee agents but all of the assembled teens could hear more agents coming, their footfalls echoing off of the walls.

"Great, more of them," Smellerbee grumbled, sounding more annoyed than frightened.

"Ah, these guys are scraps," Toph replied derisively; the blind earthbender cracked her knuckles in anticipation of the ass-whomping she was planning on handing out.

"We can take'em all down, easy."

"It might be a bit more difficult than you think, young lady," an imperious tenor voice announced.

The group, sans their blind friend, looked upwards to see none other than Long Feng himself. Halfway up the far wall of the chamber in a passage carved from the living rock by earthbending stood the leader of the Dai Lee, flanked on either side by a menacing agent.

"It's over for you Long Feng," Jet shouted.

"Yeah," Toph exclaimed enthusiastically. "We're going to blow this whole setup of yours wide open you melon-headed fuck!"

The Water Tribe siblings turned and sent surprised, slightly disturbed looks at the blind little earthbender.

"Somebody's having a little too much fun," Katara muttered under her breath.

Long Feng looked down upon the group cooly, barely batting an eye at the disrespect.

"And what '_setup'_ are your referring to, hmm? Maintaining order while the entire world writhes in chaos? Or perhaps you are referring to how the Dai Lee has managed to create an island of peace amidst a sea of confusion and fear? Don't you understand that the Dai Lee are the ones that are protecting this city!"

"Your peace is nothing but a lie," Katara yelled back furiously.

"And don't try to act like you actually give a damn about protecting the people," Jet roared. "You just want to hold onto power!"

Long Feng simply shook his head, as if he pitied the naïveté of the young people below him.

"I think that I am more qualified to say what is and is not best for this city. But I suppose that I should not expect a collection of brats and malcontents to understand."

With that, the leader of the Dai Lee made a sweeping gesture with his hand. Seemingly out of nowhere, two dozen Dai Lee agents appeared, sprouting up out of the ground; sliding down the walls from the ceiling; rushing into the chamber from the hallways. In no time the six teens were surrounded by a veritable sea of green robed, homicidal earthbenders. The Water Tribe warrior gripped his club tighter.

"Still think it's gonna be easy," Sokka grumbled to Toph.

"…Might've misspoke," Toph replied in a small voice.

From up in his perch, Long Feng began a brand new monologue.

Jet sighed, not really paying attention. This situation had certainly gone from bad to fucked. He looked over the crowd of Dai Lee agents; for now they seemed to be staying in place, waiting for an order from Long Feng. He looked to his left; Longshot gave him one of his '_nothing we haven't done before'_ smiles. He looked to his right; Smellerbee just looked pissed off and ready to hurt something.

The Freedom Fighter cracked his neck and reached into the space under one of the shoulder straps for his breastplate, withdrawing a fresh green twig and inserting it into his mouth.

"On the count of three, I'm going to do something," Jet said, speaking just loud enough for his group to hear. "Get down and then find somebody to hit."

"One…"

The leader of the Freedom Fighters intertwined the hooks of his swords, attaching them end to end.

"THREE!"

With his swords still attached, Jet held his weapons aloft and began swinging it around like an improvised flail. His friends ducked down to avoid the deadly object. Picking a random Dai Lee agent standing inside of his weapon's radius, the Freedom Fighter turned the fury of his flail onto the unfortunate man. The hand guards that covered the hilts of his swords were basically knuckle-dusters with barbs on them. When the one on the business end of his improvised flail came into contact with the soft flesh of the agent's face, the results were far from pretty. The man's face was crushed, mists of blood spewing from his mouth and nose, pieces of his flesh torn from the bones of his jaw and sent flying.

The young warriors wasted no time going on the attack, quickly turning the entire chamber into a massive melee. Sokka swung his club low, striking at his enemy's knees and shins, hobbling two Dai Lee agents outright. Katara broke in another direction and used her water whip to fell two agents with a sweep to their legs.

As Long Feng looked down from his perch, one thing became abundantly clear. In this situation, numbers were actually working against the Dai Lee's favor. His agents could not attack as freely for fear of injuring one of their own. The severe man frowned in displeasure; this was unacceptable.

The mighty Dai Lee being made sport of by children!

Leaping down onto the floor, Long Feng waded through searched through the chaos, looking for a likely target and finally setting on the waterbender. The master earthbender fashioned a large boulder out of the earth beneath his feet and sent it at her, heedless of the fact that he was putting his own men in harm's way.

Katara could not see it coming, too occupied with defending herself from the attacks of Dai Lee agents. She would have surely died if her brother had not jumped on top of her, keeping the boulder from hitting her.

"Sis, are you alright," the warrior shouted. Katara could only wheeze in response; all of the air had been knocked out of her when her brother had jumped on top of her.

"You did well to avoid that strike," Long Feng intoned coldly, approaching the prone siblings. "But let's see you avoid this one."

'_We're going to die_,' Katara thought. It was, she realized, a fact. There was no way that both she and her brother could escape Long Feng's next attack. He was already going through the motions of an earthbending kata. It was too late to do anything; he was going to kill them.

The waterbender shut her eyes against the inevitable.

'_Mom_…'

The earth shook violently and large stones rained down from the ceiling, falling near her head. She would have screamed if she had had any breath left in her lungs. Katara felt herself and her brother being picked up off of the ground and slammed back down by the force of the shaking. Her brain rattled around inside of her skull and stars danced in front of her eyes and she believed for a second that she had died. That was until she heard a guttural roar.

"Appa," she heard her brother say.

'_Appa?_'

That was impossible; there was no way that the bison could be in here.

"MMMOOOOOOAARRRR!!!!"

The waterbender quickly raised her head and saw two of the massive tree trunk legs of the sky bison standing a few yards from her head. Shoving her brother off of her back, the waterbender and her brother wobbled to their feet; a difficult task as the earth was still quaking beneath their feet. There were clouds of dust floating everywhere. The brown clouds were so thick that she couldn't see the floor anymore. The Water Tribe siblings almost did a double take; there, standing just out of an enormous gaping hole in the wall stood the mighty sky bison.

Appa was covered from nose to tail in dirt and parts of his fur had a reddish tinge to it, but all in all he seemed healthy. Three people were huddled together on the creature's head; they were nearly invisible against the bison's fur due to the fact that they were also covered in dirt and dust.

"AANG," Katara shouted.

A hoarse cough rang out in the chamber. "KATARA? ARE YOU IN HERE? WHERE ARE YOU?"

"WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED," Smellerbee yelled from the other side of the room.

Aang and Lee hopped down from the bison's head and ran towards his friends, embracing the waterbender tightly.

"I see you've found Appa," she said happily. "But why are you going through walls?"

"Yeah," the avatar said sheepishly. "We ran into some Dai Lee. Soeharto got hurt and we had to make our own exits."

Sokka was about to ask about the condition of the old man when his brain picked up on something that the airbender had said.

"Hold on, did you say _exits_," Sokka asked urgently, grabbing and shaking Aang by his shoulders. "Exits is plural. Did you punch more than one of those big holes in the wall?"

"Um…"

"That's why this place is shaking and pieces of the ceiling are falling," the warrior intoned in a hollow voice. He turned away from his sister and his friend; a good number of Dai Lee were back on their feet and seemed ready to restart the battle.

"HEY EVERYBODY," Sokka shouted at the top of his lungs. Everyone who was still conscious turned their attention towards the warrior.

"THE BASE IS COLLAPSING! IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DIE, THEN GET TO THE SURFACE NOW!!!"

An immediate pause fell over the entirety of the chamber; the Dai Lee agents seemed unsure of what to do about the situation. Indecision was written clearly across their faces; they were earthbenders and were attuned to their element. They could _feel_ the stones of the base starting to crumble under the weight of the lake above.

But Long Feng had not given them the order to retreat.

The ground rumbled even more violently than before and Sokka grunted in frustration. They had to get out of here, now!

"GUYS," Katara shouted. "DO YOU SEE LONG FENG ANYWHERE AROUND HERE?"

….Pause. A quick glance around the chamber showed that the mastermind behind the Dai Lee was nowhere in sight.

The remaining Dai Lee agents wasted no time making for the exits. The room was cleared of enemies within seconds.

"Okay, so, how do we get out of here," Smellerbee said, looking up at the bison and dodging falling stones.

"Don't worry about it Princess," Toph quipped. "You're rolling with the world's greatest earthbender and the avatar. It'll be a piece of cake."

Jet interjected before the tomboy could shoot off an angry retort for the nickname that had been bestowed upon her.

"Look, we've got the bison, we've got the evidence; the good guys win. Now lets get out of here be-"

The Freedom Fighter never got to finish his sentence; he was cut off by the stone protrusion that emerged out of the ground beneath his feet. A hollow thump resonated around the cavern as the young man was knocked off of his feet.

Watching Jet's limp body sail through the air was an eerie moment. It could not have been more than three seconds from the time he was hit until the time he landed on the ground, but to the group of teens it was as if the moment was frozen; the world had stopped.

"J-J…"

Katara tried to say his name, but she couldn't force that one syllable through her throat.

Lee's world was spinning. How? Who? Jet's face was frozen into a look of surprise even as his chest was being caved in. His face… his face looked so much like…

He couldn't breathe; this damn mask wasn't letting any air in! His chest heaved; he could feel his heart threatening to burst right through his ribcage. The whole world was going red.

'_Who. Who? WHO!?'_

The cavern shook more intensely than ever.

"Guys this whole place could collapse at any second," Toph said over the noise. "We have to go now before it's too late!"

The Freedom Fighters rushed to their fallen friend's side; they didn't care about the base collapsing. They just wanted, needed to be by his side. Lee wanted to shout out to them that they couldn't help him. Didn't they know that there was no point? Lee knew. He had seen the life drain out of a person's eyes too many times to have any doubts about Jet's fate.

That's when Lee saw him.

"Long Feng…"

The man's name was the vilest curse that he could utter. Lee could feel the fire burning at the back of his throat. Long Feng was turning cur, running for his worthless life. But he wasn't going to get away from Lee.

* * *

"Guys, seriously, we have to go now!"

Toph could feel the beginnings of panic stirring in her soul. She was tough and she was brave, but her connection to the earth showed her things; and those things scared her. Every crack, every fissure, every shift in the dirt, every stone that dropped, every wall that crumbled. She it was seeing it all happen at the same time.

"We can't just leave," Aang shouted back. "Jet's down and that guy in the mask ran off somewhere!"

"But…"

"Toph, make us a way out of here," Sokka said. The little earthbender turned towards the sound of the warrior's voice, a questioning look on her face.

"We're about to die! Do it!"

The little earthbender nodded; the airbender stood numb. While Toph concentrated on making their escape route, Sokka ran over to where his sister and the Freedom Fighters were. His sister was in the middle of trying to heal Jet with the little bit of water that she had left. The warrior grabbed her by her elbow and tugged her to her feet.

"We're leaving!"

"No," she replied, fighting out of his grip. "Jet's injured. I've got to…"

"Can you move him," the warrior shouted over the noise.

Sokka watched his sister cringe and look away; he felt his stomach drop. Jet had to have been hurt bad for her to react like this. If he was too injured to be moved then there was only one thing that they could do.

"We're…we're going to have to leave him behind."

"No, we can't! Just give me a little time! I can save him, I know I can!"

Sokka felt like tearing his hair out by the roots in frustration, he wanted to curse the Spirits for placing them in such an impossible situation. He knew his sister; he knew that she would never abandon anyone. Even if she was risking her own life; even if there was nothing she could do to save them. He wasn't going to be able to talk her down like he had done with Aang and Toph. The warrior fought down a scream.

He was going to hate himself for this.

"Katara," he looked his sister dead in her eye. "I'm not sorry."

Her eyes widened as she felt Sokka driving his fist into her midsection, in the spot that Suki had shown him. Her legs turned to jelly, unable to support her weight any longer. She protested feebly, but was powerless to prevent her brother from slinging her over his shoulder.

"You should come with us," the warrior said to the archer and the tomboy.

Longshot shook his head. "We can't," the archer intoned. His voice was barely audible.

"He's _our_ leader."

The warrior didn't waste any more time trying to convince the Freedom Fighters to come with him; what could he say?

* * *

Long Feng was not a happy man. As he limped his way to his escape tunnel his mind was awash with bitter thoughts over the destruction of his base. To think that that group of brats had done such a good job of destroying his base and disrupting the equilibrium that it had taken him so long to construct in this city. All of his careful plans, ruined.

And for what? A smelly six-legged animal!!?

Oh well; this was a major setback, but it wasn't a fatal blow. For now he had to get back to the palace and spin a story for that fool of an Earth King and minimize the damage. Both he and the Dai Lee would be able to survive this.

Sweat poured down Long Feng's large forehead; it was getting unbearably hot in here.

"LONG FENG!!"

The man in question spun around quickly, just in time to avoid the blade coming towards his face. Long Feng jerked his head backwards; his face was close enough to the steel for him to see his reflection. Heat seemed to be radiating off of the metal, scorching his face. Though he was few years past his prime, the earthbender retained much of the deadly skill that had made him the leader of the Dai Lee.

Spinning away from his attacker, Long Feng stopped, pivoted and struck the ground, causing a pillar to burst out of the wall. The masked attacker went into a split, dropping down to the floor, the pillar missing his head by a few centimeters. Undeterred, Long Feng adjusted his stance, summoning more pillars from the ground, walls and ceiling, trying to crush or at least pin down enemy.

Lee however was not about to let himself get hit, rolling around on the floor to avoid the deadly stones. However, through the course of his evasive maneuvers he had to drop his swords. Finally managing to regain his feet Lee was kept from attacking by the pillars exploding out of the ground in front of him.

"Well, that should be the end of that," Long Feng said, observing his handiwork smugly.

Lee wondered what the man was talking about until he realized, with a start, that he was pinned in on all sides by stone pillars. He was in a cage! The fire was burning beneath the young bender's skin, demanding that it be released, freed to consume everything. Lee no longer tried to hold it back.

Long Feng's eyes widened in shock as flames erupted from his prisoner's body. Lee, his body practically engulfed in flames, blasted his way through the obstructions with a few well placed strikes. The earthbender was sent skidding backwards on his heels from the concussion of the fire blasts but quickly recovered his composure.

"You're a firebender," Long Feng asked. It was voiced more like an accusation than a question.

The mask on Lee's face was crumbling, half of it falling away the reveal the angry red scar. Felt a chill run up his spine as the base continued to crumble around them.

With a shout filled with hate, Lee attacked, shooting balls of flame at the thin man in green. Long Feng evaded the first shot, ducking under the first tongue of flame and striking through the second with a fist encased in rock. While the earthbender was occupied with blocking his strikes, the firebender closed the distance.

Lee took a swipe at Long Feng's head with a flaming roundhouse. This time around the earthbender was a bit too slow in reacting and received an angry red burn to the top of his head. Gritting his teeth against the pain, Long Feng countered with an unorthodox move; he punched the younger man in the face. The rock encased fist shattered the rest of mask and smashed Lee's nose. The organ spouted blood like a fountain.

The scarred firebender spun away, cursing his impulsiveness; he was fighting sloppy. He had no business getting in that close to an opponent without his blades. Long Feng parroted the firebender's move, spinning away and backing towards the wall. The earthbender was growing increasingly unnerved by the second. He was acutely aware of the earth coming apart around him; the base could literally collapse any second. His escape tunnel might already be buried and he couldn't dig his way to the surface from this part of the base as it was below the water.

Damn it! He did NOT have time to be doing this. He had to end this now!

Lee studied his enemy's face; Long Feng was nervous. He wanted to get out of here. He was afraid of being buried alive or drowning. The monster inside of the young firebender laughed in glee. That poor, deluded old fool, so eager to give up his neck.

Long Feng moved forward aggressively, using the move he used to kill that boy in the armor. The stone ram burst from the floor; he was sure that he had that whelp dead to rights. Lee's sharp eyes caught the desperation on the earthbender's face and he moved at the same time as Long Feng. Timing was everything, if Lee was even half a second too slow, he would be dead… just like Jet.

He was quicker.

Slipping around the earthen ram by a matter of millimeters, the firebender turned on Long Feng. As he ran, Lee created a thin whip of fire in his right hand. Flicking his wrist the scarred vagrant lashed the flame across the earthbender's face, melting the skin around his eyes.

"GAAAHH," Long Feng screamed in agony, clutching at his face. He fell to the ground. Lee stood over him.

It would be so easy to kill him right now. All of the many ways that he had learned to end a person's life flashed through his mind; Jiji's voice narrarated each one in loving detail. Crush his throat; drive his nose bone back into his brain; strangle the life out of him; open up his gut; cut his throat… none of them were good enough.

'_You will learn respect. And suffering will be your teacher…_'

The firebender summoned flames into both of his hands and reached down, palming the older man's face between them. An unearthly wail ripped its way out of the earthbender's throat as his skin sizzled.

Lee watched as the skin on Long Feng's face blackend and began to peel away, an evil smile spreading across his features. The smell of burning hair and boiling human fat filled his nostrils, making his mouth water like the scent of some rich Fire Nation delicacy from his days as a prince. He was burning Long Feng. He was burning his own hands but he didn't care! He understood what Xiao Feng meant when he said that he should enjoy moments like this. This feeling was just too… satisfying.

The monster within was in rapture; it wanted to eat. It wanted to consume, gorge itself on all of creation and devour the flesh of the living. He was laughing, laughing so hard that tears streamed from his eyes and not a damn thing was funny.

He was miserable…

"AAFFAAFHHH!!! SSTOOP! PLEASE STOP!!!"

He was wretched…

"NNNEEAAAHHH!!!"

He wanted him to burn…

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!!"

"SHUT UP!"


	18. Chapter 18

_SlimJames is back and he's got a new chapter for dat ass!! School is finally over and I don't have to worry about exams, or tests of homework until August; I WIN AGAIN! Anyway, I've got more time write since I don't have a job right now so you can expect a bit more frequency with my stories. Anyway, here's chapter 18. _

Chapter 18

His head was resting on her stomach, his breath coming in labored, angry bursts. It was like he wanted to cry but was finding the task too difficult to accomplish and this fact was just adding to his frustration. Jin stroked his hair tenderly as Lee clutched her closer to himself, as if he was afraid that she was going to disappear.

'_Dumbass_,' she thought as she continued to stroke his hair. She wasn't about to leave him; even if she had a way out of this hell hole, she wouldn't leave him.

The scarred young man had broken into her room again. It had been a few hours ago; he had looked terrible, covered in blood and dirt and his hands…

Jin looked down at them and winced. His hands were crudely wrapped up in strips of cloth that she had torn from her linens. She was no healer, but she was smart enough to know that somebody with burns like that should go to see a real doctor as soon as possible.

'_Tap, Tap, Tap…_'

The sound at her door made her jump.

"Who is it," she called, affecting a dull rasp to her voice.

"It's Liu, are you feeling any better Jin."

One of her fellow working girls coming to check on her; the Madame probably sent her up. She had been playing sick in order to not see any customers; nobody wants to bang a sick hooker. She'd be screwed if the bosses found that she was lying and had someone in here with her. A beating or worse was all that she could look forward to.

Jin looked down at her lap and saw a single golden iris looking right back at her. The scarred vagrant was tensed; like a wild animal that had been driven into a corner.

An animal that was ready, even eager, to kill at the first sign of trouble.

Jin gave some fake hacks and coughs before responding; hopefully convincing Liu that she really was near death's door.

"I'm still feeling pretty down Pip," she replied. "I'm just going to try and get some sleep."

"Alright girl; hope you get better soon."

Jin held her breath while she listened to the footsteps of her coworker fade into nothingness. The silence told her that she had bought it. She exhaled slowly and settled down. She was about to go back to stroking the scarred vagrant's hair when he lifted his head from the warm confines of her lap.

"I should go," Lee said, slowly climbing to his feet.

"You gonna be okay," Jin asked, concern coloring her voice.

He wanted to say yes, if only to make her feel better. He couldn't do it. He couldn't form the words '_I'm going to be alright'_. The knot in his throat wouldn't allow him to do anything except nod his head and make an attempt at a smile. She wanted him to stay, she wanted to be there for him and help him through whatever it was that had happened to him.

She kissed him before locking his head in place and looking deeply into his eyes.

"Come back to see me later, okay."

It was a demand, not a request.

The scarred vagrant gently removed her hands from his face and leaned in to plant a kiss on her forehead. Without another word Lee turned and was gone through the window. The working girl hoped that that kiss had meant a yes to her demand but knew the young man well enough that it could just as easily meant '_goodbye forever'_.

She could hope though; hope that he could see that he had somebody who was there for him. Jin knew about being in pain and she knew how much more it hurt when you had to go through it alone.

* * *

The elders of the Water Tribe always preach to the youth about how suddenly a person's fortunes can turn. The North and South Poles were their beloved homeland, but they were also hard and unforgiving landscapes that showed no mercy to the weak or the unprepared. Challenges would inevitably arise for anyone that chose to live there and the Water Tribe taught its brood how to survive cataclysms.

It was a lesson- a paradigm of grim resignation for the worst- that was entrenched into the souls of the hardy people who made their homes on the icy tundra. A pack of tundra wolves break into the storehouse and devour half of the food your tribe had saved up for the winter freeze?

Buckle down, tighten your belts and concentrate on surviving; that was the way of the Water Tribe. You don't stop to bemoan your losses; you take what you are given and persevere.

That was the attitude that allowed an entire race to thrive in one of the most extreme environments on earth and it was this attitude that helped to buoy Sokka's sinking spirits. Outrageous as it may have sounded the Gaang was actually in a much more secure position after the event at Lake Laogai. They had learned upon their return that Long Feng had, apparently, not made it out of the base. The evidence of the shady man's conduct that Jet had given Sokka assured that the entire leadership of the Dai Lee was arrested.

Though the shadowy organization was in a shambles, they weren't completely finished off; the agents had managed to destroy many of their secret files before being taken to the dungeons. Spirits only knew what kinds of shit those creeps had been able to get away with for all this time; Spirits only knew whose ass wouldn't have to rot in a cell because of a lack of evidence. It was irksome to say the least.

It had been six days and nights since they had recovered Appa and there was no denying that- emotionally and psychologically- the avatar's group was still at a definite low point. The experiences of Lake Laogai had left a deep impression on them all.

Toph was not acting like herself. The little earthbender's casual arrogance was tempered, the vinegar in her words and actions seemingly drained.

Aang had spent a lot of time meditating and reestablishing his connection with Appa. It was a good thing, but the young avatar was clearly still shaken by seeing Jet getting killed so suddenly.

Soeharto had been injured in the battle and the escape from the base. Even though Katara had healed him, the old detective was laid up in one of the spare rooms of their guest house. He had tried to insist that he was fine and go back to work but had been met with a flat refusal from the waterbender, who demanded that he stay in bed and rest.

And Katara…

Sokka looked towards his sister's room. She still hadn't said more than two words to him since what he had begun referring to in his mind as '_the incident_'. He sighed; the warrior did not feel bad about what he had done but hated being at odds with his sister. This wasn't the same as that petty animosity between the two of them like that time in the Great Divide. Katara really _could not_ stand being near him right now.

Sokka huffed; he no longer had the time to worry about his sister. He would not feel guilty; had been right to do what he did. Katara just needed to grow up and realize that she couldn't save everybody.

'_Somebody has to look at things logically._'

He rechecked the pack of maps and war plans that he had prepared for his meeting later on today with the Earth Kingdom's generals. The plans for the invasion of the Fire Nation on the Day of Black Sun were going to be finalized this morning, Toph had received a message from her parents requesting a meeting with her and then there was the issue with his father and the other Southern Water Tribe warriors at Chameleon Bay.

The young warrior's heart desperately wanted to join his brethren and return to his father's side, but his pragmatic brain kept him from acting on this impulse. The group had met _way_ to many incompetents and faced _way_ too many setbacks since setting foot in this damn city and Sokka, quite frankly, didn't trust any of the Earth King's generals not to screw up his carefully constructed invasion plans. He would be staying in Ba Sing Se for the time being.

The Water tribe warrior threw his pack over his shoulder before calling out that he was leaving. Aang and Toph's voices responded; he didn't hear his sister. The warrior sighed before squaring up, shouldering his pack and heading out of the door.

The walk to the palace passed quickly and Sokka was quickly ushered thorough the massive gates by one of the palace servants. He felt a familiar feeling of tension settle in on his shoulders. There were a little less than eight months until the Day of Black Sun, but the Water Tribe warrior still got the sense that they were cutting things kind of close; an invasion of the Fire Nation home islands is a big undertaking after all.

He realized, a bit belatedly, that he would be turning eighteen around that time.

Passing through the grand promenade the young warrior spied something out of the corner of his eye. Turning quickly, the young warrior was just in time to see a young woman with a long braid and clad in a green kimono quickly turn and disappear around a corner.

"Hey pal," he said to his guide. The demure little man turned and bowed to him politely.

"Yes, my lord?"

Sokka felt his eyebrow twitch a little at the honorific, but let it slide; the Gaang had risen considerably in status since their takedown of the Dai Lee.

"Are there Kyoshi warriors staying here at the palace?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't really know who you are referring to," the servant said apologetically.

"Never mind," Sokka said.

He had more important things to do at the moment; he could find out whether or not that was a Kyoshi warrior he saw after he was finished with his work. They soon reached the chamber that housed the Council of Five. As the heavy stone doors scraped open Sokka took a deep breath; it was going to be a long day.

* * *

"You just had to go in for a closer look didn't you?"

The question was extremely dry, effortlessly condescending and obviously rhetorical. Most people would have been embarrassed or angered to have their mistakes so shamelessly rubbed in their faces; Ty Lee however was not most people.

"Awww, but it's been so long since I've seen him! Don't you think that that Water Tribe guy has gotten totally hot since that time in the Drill?"

Mai's dull golden eyes- lacking in the typical fierce luster that usually came with the trait- were cast sideways towards the bubbly little acrobat. Ty Lee, like Mai, was clad in hideous the clown make-up and battle kimono of a Kyoshi warrior.

"You do realize that we're supposed to be here incognito, right," the knife mistress intoned, her voice dripping with boredom.

"If anybody finds out who we really are, we're dead."

"Aww, you worry too much," Ty Lee responded breezily, a big smile on her face.

"We're in disguise, remember? Nobody can tell who we are under all of this make-up. And besides, he was halfway across the room; there's no way he knows it's us."

Mai shook her head. Once again Ty Lee was missing the point completely; the acrobat had supreme confidence in the abilities of herself and her friends. She believed that they could handle anything, no matter what it was. Mai on the other hand was much more rational; Azula, Ty Lee and she were good, _very_ good.

But three girls going up against all of Ba Sing Se? She shook her head- nobody was _that_ good.

"Look, just don't take dumb risks, okay," Mai asked in a tone which indicated she didn't give a damn one way or the other what Ty Lee did.

Ty Lee simply giggled and upended herself, walking on her hands as she was prone to doing at any available opportunity. Mai was reminded once again of just how much power was packed in the petite acrobat's muscles; these armored kimono weren't exactly light.

"I hear ya, Mai," the still upended acrobat replied, clearly not taking the advice seriously.

The blade mistress would have sighed but found that she didn't have the energy for it. Instead the two friends continued on their way, walking the grand corridors of the palace headed to… well, nowhere in particular, actually. When the trio had first arrived in the court of the Earth King, their unusual garbs had made them the center of attention- that had lasted all of forty eight hours. Since then, Azula had done her very best to get her group to blend into the background of hangers on and sycophants which inhabited the halls of power.

The plan was to bide their time, gather information and wait for an opportunity to force a breach in one of the city's walls Mai was, quite honestly, more bored than she had ever been in her entire life. The reason why she had left Omashu to go with Azula and Ty Lee was so that she wouldn't have to _be_ bored.

"This whole thing just feels like a giant waste of time," the brooding girl deadpanned.

Flipping back onto her feet, Ty Lee attempted to cheer up her friend.

"Don't be so gloomy Mai! You just have to learn how to enjoy the moment; it's a beautiful day, the sun's shining, birds are chirping and nobody's trying to drag us off to a dark, spooky dungeon for being Fire Nation spies."

The blade mistress flinched and quickly looked around to make sure that no one was in earshot.

"Don't go broadcasting that we're Fire Nation where just anybody can hear you," Mai said testily.

"Indeed, you never know who could be listening."

Mai and Ty Lee froze and turned around just in time to see Azula emerge from behind a pillar.

"Hi Azula," the acrobat said cheerily, a happy grin on her face.

Mai simply crossed her arms and eyed the Fire Nation princess. Azula seemed a bit… off; it was as if some of her poise was slipping. That was just odd as the princess was rarely anything other than on point all of the time. Something was definitely up.

"You're usually cozying up to the Earth King at this hour, Azula. What gives?"

The princess frowned and shook her head, indicating that she wasn't going to talk about it, at least not right now.

"I'll see you two later on tonight," the Fire princess said. "I'm going to go check on a few things."

"Oooh! You're planning something, aren't you," Ty Lee said. She was literally bouncing from suppressed excitement.

Azula smirked confidently.

"No promises yet girls, but if everything goes as I think it will we can say goodbye to this wretched city by the time the week is out."

The acrobat squealed in anticipation and the knife mistress quirked an eyebrow. Finally there was something to look forward to.

* * *

Princess Azula of the Fire Nation, currently masquerading as a Kyoshi warrior, was a young woman who was currently feeling very pressed for time. Azula was glad that she had had Ty Lee and Mai walk through the palace and make a map of the enormous building for her- a map she had committed to memory within an evening's time and then destroyed. Otherwise she would have been hopelessly lost. This place dwarfed the Capital Palace of the Fire Lord.

As she strode quickly through the ancient halls of the palace her agile mind kept going back to the rather disturbing information the Earth King had related to her during her audience with him just a few hours ago.

'_In a few months time our armies will be launching an invasion of the Fire Nation capital, on the day of a solar eclipse…_'

Azula had been unable to keep the shock off of her face when she had heard _that_ little piece of information. She had no idea how the Earth Kingdom had learned of something that was going to take place months from now- though she suspected the avatar probably had something to do with it. What she _did_ know was that she had to do something to nip this obstacle in the bud before it had the chance to bloom into something poisonous.

The Earth King really was a naïve fool; to reveal sensitive national security information to a vassal who had only been in your presence for a week was simply beyond idiotic.

Imperial courts are very curious places. Azula liked to think of them as Deku nuts. The princess loved Deku nuts; she had ever since she was a child. Their shells had the most intriguing dappled red and green color and they were absolutely delicious when boiled and salted.

They could also be quite vexing as one never really knew when one had a good nut or a bad nut. The cursed things rotted from the inside and the exteriors gave no indication of just how spoiled the interior had become. The court of the Earth King reminded Azula very strongly of a Deku nut. On the outside it was beautiful and flawless, but if one were to crack the shell and observe the contents one could easily see the corruption.

Azula had been acting the part of the lowly backcountry courtier for nearly two weeks and had developed a fairly good feel of the place. Beneath its pleasant façade, palace life was a never ending cycle of flattery, duplicity, political infighting and backstabbing between the various noble families of Ba Sing Se, regional kings and warlords and political factions that called the place home. It was abundantly clear that turmoil was bubbling underneath the surface.

Spotting her intended destination, Azula stepped into an out of the way passage and proceeded down a shadowy staircase. It took a few minutes for the disguised princess to make it all the way down the stairs to her final destination; the dungeons, several levels below the surface of the palace. Walking past several rooms filled with rusty and cobweb covered "interrogation" devices, Azula came to a stop when she came to a section of the hallway that was blocked off by a set of heavy iron bars which stretched from the floor to the ceiling.

"State your business," an extremely bored sounding guard said from behind the bars.

The Fire Princess bowed to the lowly guard and spoke to him as if the unwashed peasant were the Earth King himself.

"I apologize for disturbing you sir, but I have been sent to these dungeons on behalf of His Highness, the Earth King. May I enter, please?"

Azula shyly cut her eyes upward and did her best imitation of that doey-eyed flirtatious look that she had seen Ty Lee use on members of the opposite sex. Though repulsed at having to debase herself in such a way, the princess was pleased to see that her alluring techniques were having the desired effect. Even in the dim light of the subterranean tunnel the Fire Princess's sharp eyes could make out the oaf's blush.

"Uh..oh! Well as long as you show me your papers then you can go through."

Dutifully, Azula produced a an official looking document from the sleeve of her robe- really just a piece of stationary she had swiped from the desk of some government bean-counter- and flashed it just long enough in the guard's face for him to get a good look at the Earth King's personal seal. When it looked like the man was about to say something, Azula beat him to the punch.

"I trust everything is in order sir," she said meekly, doing her best to seem cute and to preempt any attempt the guard may have made to check the slip of paper a little more closely.

"Um, yeah," the flustered guard hurried to unlock the gate for the flirtatious young woman. "Go on ahead."

The princess bowed and giggled girlishly in a fairly good imitation of her acrobat friend before hurrying down the darkened passage. She walked for a few minutes before she found the cells that she was looking for; the ones all the way down at the end of the passage and constructed out of solid metal.

_They_ were supposed to be in here.

Choosing a door, she rapped on it briskly with her knuckles until she heard a grunt of complaint come from inside of the cell. Now that she knew she had the inmate's attention Azula slid aside the grate on the door so that she was able to look inside.

"So… to whom am I speaking? Mr. Ma Ngyuen? Or perhaps you are Mr. Fu Chan? "

"Fa Tzu," the inmate said, his voice devoid of energy. "Ma and Fu are both probably dead as dirt by now; the bulls already got to them. But then again, you should already know that…"

The jingling sound of chains and the scrape of metal across the floor foretold the appearance of the prisoner. Before long Azula could see him; Fa Tzu was a short, burly man. He was broad of shoulder, thick of neck with a jaw that looked as if it had been carved from a slab of granite. His hair, matted and dirty, had been taken out of its queue and now hung limply around his head. His clothes were in tatters and the Fire Princess could see the recently healed cuts and bruises on his unshaven face.

"Who are you," he asked, curiosity warring with suspicion as he looked at the young girl in clown makeup.

"Princess Azula, Supreme Commander of the Dragon Army and heir to the throne of the Fire Nation," she answered truthfully and had the pleasure of watching the man's eyes but out of his head.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Fa Tzu, senior operations manager for the Dai Lee."

The prisoner looked dumbfounded; good. If he was in no mood to talk then Azula would simply talk for him.

"You are probably wondering right now if I really am who I say that I am; wondering if this is not just some crude attempt to entrap you. Let me assure you right now that your suspicions of me and my intentions do _not_ matter. The only thing that _does_ matter is that you listen to what I have to say and then agree to my offer, because without me…"

She smirked a very Azula-ish smirk that made Fa Tzu- no coward by anyone's standards- uneasy.

"You. Are. Going. To. Die."

"…What do you want from me?"

Chaos leads to opportunity; you just had to be intelligent enough to take advantage of the situation and not get swept away by it. Azula, still playing the part of the demure Kyoshi warrior did not let the carnivorous grin that was growing inside of her ever reach her face.

"You are going to give me what's left of the Dai Lee."

* * *

"You got anything that can help with burns?"

The old apothecary shuffled behind the counter, fussing with something on a low shelf. He didn't even look up when he answered his customer's question, directing the young man towards the back left corner of the store. The firebender used the used the sound of the heavy rain falling outside to distract him from the pain in his hands.

The dull yet constant sting in his hands was a reminder of why his uncle had always told him not to lose his temper; he started doing stupid things and ending up in apothecary shops in the Middle Ring looking for burn remedies. Lee felt like a jackass for even being here. Seriously, what kind of firebender burns _himself_?

Still, at least the burns weren't on his face this time. Now _that_ had sucked.

Lee walked down the aisles and scanned the shelves, looking for Gano herb and Orangeweed oil. Seeing his desired remedies, he grabbed a handful of the former and a vial of the latter and stuffed them into the small sack that the owners had hung up at the front of the store for the customers.

Taking his selections back up to the front, Lee sat them down on the counter and the apothecary placed the sack on a scale.

"Okay, that'll be ten stones."

Lee gave an exasperated grunt; fucking shopkeepers always trying to get you to pay more for things than what they're worth.

"The hell are you trying give me," the firebender growled menacingly. "I'm only paying you what they're worth. Four."

The shopkeeper harrumphed and brought himself up to his full height, which was several inches taller than his uppity customer.

"You stink of the Lower Ring, but up on this level we don't give handouts. This is a business, not a charity kid. My price is my price; you don't like it, head back down to your hole and go play with the rats."

Lee felt himself starting to get mad; he was used to people on the upper levels looking down on him because he came from the Lower Ring and he was usually able to brush it off.

But he had been having a bad week, he was in pain and his patience- never his strong suit- was worn down to the thinness of paper. This guy wanted to test him?

Alright, fine. His hands may have been burned, but he could still put them to good use.

Quicker than the shopkeeper's eyes could follow, the scarred young man reached into one of his sleeves, withdrew a small blade and buried it in one of the apothecary's hands, pinning him to the countertop. With his other hand Lee grabbed the taller man's nose and gave the soft tissue a sharp twist; the apothecary squealed like a stuck chicken-hog.

Lee could feel the stares of other people on him. He had forgotten where he was for a second; on this level people actually cared about somebody getting assaulted in front of them. Letting go of the man's nose, Lee grabbed the top of his head and slammed his face down into the countertop.

Wordlessly, Lee grabbed his bag and made his way out of the shop. The other customers who were present- the ones who hadn't already run- scattered to get out of his way. He let his blade stay where it was- it was just a hunk of metal he had fashioned into a makeshift shank. He had more back at his place. Stepping outside into the rain Lee cracked his neck and flipped his head back, letting the rain fall down onto his face before straightening up and flipping the hood of his robe over his head.

"Great, another place I can't go back to."

The bells down at the station were ringing. He had a shuttle to catch.

* * *

"The hell are you trying give me?"

Katara looked up from her perusing of the shelves of herbal remedies to cut a quick eye towards the front of the store. An argument seemed to be brewing between the apothecary and one of his customers. The waterbender quickly refocused on the shelves and tuned the conversation out; she was supposed to be here looking for anesthesia for Soeharto, not eavesdropping on other people's conversations.

She had healed the old detective using her waterbending, but while her powers could take care of broken bones and lacerations, they weren't so good at defeating the demon arthritis. Not seeing anything that she could use, Katara detached herself from the shelf and headed towards the store's back room.

She had barely passed through the curtain which separated the back from the rest of the store when she heard the scream. She froze up for a second, images of Jet flying limply through the air flashing through her mind. Katara shook herself out of her momentary lapse and hurried back into the main part of the store. Rushing up to the counter the waterbender found the apothecary on his countertop, crying, blood pouring out of his nose and trying to pull what looked like a piece of metal out of his hand.

"Sir, please calm down," the waterbender said, doing her best to keep the man from going into hysterics.

"I'm going to help you, but you need to calm down first!"

"H-he stabbed me! Fucking bastard stabbed me," the man babbled in reply, both pain and disbelief evident in his voice.

Katara had already removed the crude blade bent some to heal the wound when she looked back over her shoulder to see if she could spot the culprit of the attack. What, or rather who she saw, made all of the breath leave her body.

Standing there out in the street, his head tossed backwards, the rain running down his face. _It was him_.

"Zuko…"

The word came out as a whisper, of fear, of confusion. Of disbelief; after all of this time he was here? She was seeing him? Was this really happening? Was that really him?

His hair was short and scruffy, a scraggly patch of hair on his chin; but the features were the same. That scar was the same. As much as she wanted to doubt it, she couldn't. There was no doubt…

It was _him_!

She saw her old enemy throw his hood over his head and start to walk away. A chill ran up her spine; she couldn't just let him walk away! She had to find out what he was doing here; whatever it was, it couldn't be good. Was he here to spy? To capture Aang? Was the Fire Nation planning another attack?

The grunt from the apothecary reminded her that before she went rushing off after the Fire Prince, she had to deal with the man he had hurt. Katara enveloped his injured hand in water and began the process; she rushed through it. She should have taken longer, but it wasn't life threatening; besides the man owned a store that sold medical supplies. He should be able to take care of himself.

She rushed out into the street, looking around wildly, trying to spot him.

Was that him? No, too tall.

Over there! No, wrong cloak.

'_There.' _

Heading down the street towards the shuttle service that took people down to the Lower Ring; she recognized that aggressive, imperious gait. That had to be him.

Katara threw the hood of her own cloak over her hair.

"You're not getting away from me…"

* * *

**AN**_: OHO! Things are coming to a head! The next chapter won't take a month to get done, I promise!_


	19. Chapter 19

_New Chapter! We're getting to the end of Book 2 and I've already thought of the way that I'm going to end the events that would have taken place in Crossroads of Destiny. The big picture's done, I just need to fill in some of the details. The climax should come in the next chapter or so..._

Chapter 19

Something wasn't right. That creeping feeling that ran up the back of his neck- the one that hadn't gone away since he clawed his way out of Lake Laogai- was telling him that a pair of hostile eyes were on him.

Lee turned his head and looked behind him for the umpteenth time, scanning the bobbing masses of heads and shoulders that rustled against each other in the crowded halls of the tram station. He tried to examine every face that moved before his eyes- an impossible task, trying to follow that many people. He still tried.

Green, green, green, green, all he saw was green garments and bitter, hardened, defeated, cynical looks on the faces of bitter, hardened cynical people. Grunting in frustration, he gave up. He was being stupid; his mind was just playing tricks on him, like it had been doing ever since Jade Passage. He didn't have anybody in particular that he was looking for; he didn't even know whether or not he was being tailed.

He could just be chasing phantoms…. But what if he wasn't?

He shook his head violently, exorcising his treacherous thoughts before turning back around and heading for the massive double doors of the station.

'_I'm being paranoid.'_

It was a fact that he wasn't even going to try to deny. He was paranoid, but he had good reason to be. He didn't really have to actively fear anyone from his former life coming after him; he was small game. They probably-hopefully- thought he was dead, just like his uncle. But had more than a few enemies in the Ba Sing Se underworld; he had robbed a lot of people, beaten up more than a few and had killed a couple here and there.

The friends that could have actually helped him if somebody was after him were buried under tons of rubble and lake water, and the only person left in the world who gave a damn whether he was dead or alive worked on her back ten hours a day. The sky rumbled and the rain outside started coming down even harder; this day just kept getting better and better.

Lee began his long walk back to the Killer Hills- his neighborhood was far away from pretty much everything of consequence. He listened to the ambient sounds of the city, letting his senses become lost in the white noise of human commotion. It comforted him, the feeling of being lost amidst a mass of other people. It made him feel anonymous; he liked being anonymous. He wasn't isolated, he wasn't special, no one expected anything of him, and nobody knew who he was.

Nobody knew who he was.

But that creeping feeling in his neck had worked its way down to the base of his spine, it was in his ears whispering foul nothings, telling him that his sense of security was a lie. Somebody was very much aware of him. Lee gritted his teeth; he took deep breaths, trying to slow the thumping of his heart in his chest.

Once again, he turned and quickly looked over his shoulder, trying to spot somebody, anybody, that he had seen on the tram coming down from the Middle Ring. Looking for somebody suspicious in this crowd was no good- this was the Lower Ring, everybody looked shifty to his eyes.

The scarred vagrant quickened his pace, kept his head down and moved amongst the crowd weaving his way in between other pedestrians, trying to throw his phantom pursuers off of his trail. Lee knew that this could all just be in his head. That he could be fleeing from demons of his own imagining; none of that mattered. Not even demons would be allowed to catch him.

* * *

She'd almost lost him again.

Almost.

The pouring rain played havoc on vision; had she not been able to subtly bend some of the water falling in front of her face she would surely have lost _him_ in the crowd. But she could still see his head and every once in a while he would quickly turn to look over his shoulder. He suspected that somebody was following him.

The Prince had gotten broader in the shoulder and a bit thicker in build than she remembered, but he still moved the same. A person can change a lot of things about themselves, but their gait, the way in which they carry themselves; that was one thing that hardly ever changed. Seeing his face had been a shock to her, so much of a shock that at first there was a sliver of doubt in her mind as what she had just seen.

After all, why would Zuko of all people choose to resurface now? The angry young man that used to terrify them on an almost weekly basis had seemingly dropped off of the face of the earth, never to be heard from nor seen again. And then, after all this time, he just reappears? Stuff like that didn't happen in real life. The whole idea was just laughable.

And yet, there he was.

Standing in that doorway with the rain coming down on his head, water running across the ugly contours of the burn on his face. He was just standing there- standing right where he _shouldn't_ have been. Could she really be blamed for thinking- hoping- that maybe she had seen wrong? After all, a war was going on and plenty of people were walking around with scars. But seeing him on the move just confirmed it for her. It was the final piece of the puzzle that swept away the last traces of denial in her mind.

The waterbender was forced to quickly duck behind a street vendor's stand when her quarry quickly checked over his shoulder once again. Katara raised an eyebrow at that; he was beginning to check behind him more frequently. His movements were also becoming more and more erratic. It was obvious that he was trying to throw off pursuers. Had he spotted her?

Should she make a move to take him down? She would have the advantage after all; the sun was blocked by the storm clouds and with this much water coming down she should have no problem taking him down. She discounted that idea after almost immediately- the street was too crowded. Getting into a fight would likely pull in too many innocent people. Besides, if Zuko was hiding out down here then he probably knew the area; these streets offered too many avenues of escape.

'_I've got to be smart about this; I'll just follow him back to his hideout, then get back up to the palace and alert everyone else. We can capture him quickly and quietly.' _

It was, by her humble reckoning, a good plan. The problem was that her quarry seemed to have decided to take a walking tour of the Lower Ring today. She continuously had to contend with Zuko's unexpected twists and turns; one minute he would be hurriedly making his way down a street before abruptly ducking down a side alley or doubling back to go around a corner. Katara realized fairly quickly that she was truly and completely lost; Spirits only knew how long it would take her to find a tram station again. The young waterbender nearly lost track of him a number of times.

The rainfall wasn't helping matters either; all of the streets in this area of the Lower Ring were made of dirt. The downpour was turning that dirt into sticky, foul smelling mud. It was getting hard for her to pull her feet out of the muck and since she was too occupied in her pursuit to bend the water out of her clothes, she was soaked through to the bone. She would catch a cold like this.

Still, she wasn't about to let him out of her sight. She had a feeling that his suspicion was dying down anyway. Zuko had stopped making so many changes in direction and had finally decided to stop looking over his shoulder every second. After one last turn onto a desolate and dangerous looking street, she stopped and watched as Zuko trudged his way over to a multi-storied flophouse. After one last check behind him, the Fire Prince went inside.

Taking a breath to steady herself, Katara crossed the street and followed the Fire Prince inside of the building. The waterbender was immediately struck by how run down the inside of the building was; the outside looked like it had survived a war but the interior looked as if it had fought in that same war and had lost….badly.

"Need a room dearie, we have vacancies."

Katara jumped slightly and turned towards her right. A middle aged man, whisper thin and sporting a large scar across the bridge of his nose was standing behind the battered reception desk. The way that he was looking at her reminded Katara of the way her brother looked at a slab of freshly cured seal jerky. She fought down the urge to cringe and calmly approached the man behind the desk.

"Hey. Do you happen to know the name of that guy that came in here just before me," she asked.

The man gave her a dubious look, the salacious leer in his eye changing into a measuring gaze of tempered suspicion.

"Don't know his name, don't care about his name," he said dismissively.

"Couldn't you just check the registry," the waterbender pressed while attempting to look across the counter.

"Haven't got a registry; even if we did, half of the names on there probably fake anyway."

Now it was Katara's turn to look skeptical; who ever heard of a hotel that didn't have a registry?

"Look, that man is a dangerous criminal so I understand if you're scared but…"

"Little girl, where do you think you are," the man replied, sniffing condescendingly.

"Pretty much everyone who lives around here, present company included, either _is_ or _was_ at one time a cutthroat or criminal."

"So I guess appealing to your better nature won't get you to help me out," the young waterbender said in thinly veiled disgust. The man simply laughed in her face.

"So what is it going to take to get your cooperation then?"

The man held out his hand, palm upturned. Katara riffled through her pockets before she extracted a few coins and placed them in the man's hand.

"How much information does that buy me?"

He looked disappointed with what he had received, but after a second simply shrugged and said.

"Fourth floor, can't say which room but most of them are vacant anyway. He's not the type to come out during the day so if you're planning something you probably shouldn't come at night."

Katara, slightly taken aback at the attendant's attitude promptly thanked the man for his information.

"Don't tell him that I was here asking questions, okay?"

The man behind the counter huffed as if to say "of course" and waved the young woman away. Katara quickly made for the exit. Now that she had tracked Zuko back to his hiding place, she had no time to waste. She had to hurry back to the Upper Ring, tell the Earth King and Aang and even her brother and get a plan together to take down Zuko before he had a chance to disappear or carry out whatever harebrained scheme he was planning this time.

She was almost out of the front when she remembered something that she had to do before she did anything else. Turning around she asked the attendant behind the counter…

"By the way, do you know how to get to the tram station?"

* * *

Though she would rather kiss a komodo-rhino then admit it, Mai was impressed. All across the floor of the subterranean chamber, drawn up in neat formations ten deep and ten across over a hundred agents of the nearly defunct Dai Lee stood at attention as they were treated to one of Azula's inspirational sermons. The knife specialist had always marveled at the Fire Princess' ability to capture everyone's attention and keep it focused upon herself.

She was steeling their backbones for the betrayal they were about to commit while letting them know who was in charge; intimidate and inspire. Generate awe and fear; classic Azula. Mai could practically see the spirits of the scarred and stiff backed Dai Lee double over in supplication to that of the Princess of the Fire Nation. Some, the knife mistress mused, might even call it a thing of beauty.

Though she was half the size of most of the men that she was addressing, Azula somehow managed to appear as if she was the biggest person in the room. Mai quietly observed the scene; everyone- her acrobat friend included- was listening with rapt attention as the young firebender prophesized that their actions on this day would create an epoch in the pages of history and promised certain victory. Azula's was the only voice in the entire crystal cavern; no one else spoke, no one hardly even breathed.

They would be immortalized in glory if they succeeded, but a traitor's death was the only thing that awaited them all should they fail. Mai rolled her eyes at that statement; the rouge Dai Lee would die a traitor's death in the event of failure but the girls had already devised several escape scenarios. If things went south in their little coup attempt, they would not be around to reap the consequences. Another classic from the Azula playbook.

Still, Mai just wished that her friend would just hurry it up! She, for one, was ready to get started with the damn plan. The knife mistress was keyed up; she had been bored for much too long and it was past time for her to start venting on something. Agni, apparently in answer to her silent prayers, saw fit to grant her wish; Azula was wrapping her speech up.

"ONWARDS TO VICTORY," she shouted, her voice reverberating about the cavern, bouncing off of the pillars of crystal quartz, her small fist pumping into the air.

The Dai Lee, trained to be dour and steady as the earth they manipulated, felt themselves filled with fire and furious energy, raucous cheers ripping from their own throats in response to their leader's. They were transformed; when they had arrived, they had appeared beaten. Their spirits were broken and lived in fear of the reprisals of their enemies.

But now? Now they were world-beaters; overthrowing the entire Earth Kingdom did not seem like impossibility but inevitability.

"The girls got a gift," Mai muttered to herself before walking over to join the side of the Fire Princess and the acrobat.

"Everything is going according to plan ladies," Azula said smugly. "We'll be initiating operations within the hour."

"Finally," Mai said in audible relief.

"Oooh, this is going to be so much fun," Ty Lee said giddily. The girl was bouncing up and down on her toes in anticipation. Though it didn't show on her face, the knife mistress could feel her own feelings of excitement and apprehension growing inside of her chest. She loved these times; the sick thrill of battle, the creeping uncertainty of the time leading up to a conflict, it was all so fresh and rejuvenating to her dry and nauseatingly mundane soul. Most of the time, she simply existed; it was only in battle where she truly felt _alive_.

"Indeed," Azula replied, half-dismissively, her attention elsewhere.

Mai and Ty Lee followed the Princess' line of sight her vision landing upon a monstrously tall Dai Lee agent that stood head and shoulders above his compatriots. Azula swiftly approached the young agent, her two friends in tow.

"You there," the Princess said imperiously. "What are you called?"

"I'm sorry my lady, but Shi cannot answer you," the agent to the tall one's right answered.

"And why not?"

"Because the lad can't speak."

Turning to look up at his taller comrade, the older agent made a motion. The younger one bent himself nearly double at the waist so that he was nearly face to face with the three girls and opened his mouth, revealing that he was missing his tongue. Ty Lee gasped and turned away; Mai felt herself cringe ever so slightly. Azula raised a lone eyebrow before questioning the older Dai Lee agent.

"Is this one as strong as he looks?"

"The strongest in the Dai Lee," the old agent said with considerable pride. The Fire Princess smiled slightly before turning back to face the mute earthbender.

"Excellent. Shi, my dear, I have a special job in mind for you."

* * *

'_Rrrarrghharraahgararhhaaeehhhh_'

To the untrained ear, the loud gurgling sound that echoed through the house could easily been mistaken for the mating cry of a bull wolfrus. But for anyone who had spent more than two hours with the young Water Tribe warrior known as Sokka, that sound signified that it had been quite a while since the teen had gorged himself on meat.

Sokka, surprised at the sound that was coming from his own stomach, looked up from reviewing the logistical reports that had been forwarded to him by the Earth Kingdom Western Regional Command Center and looked down at his midsection.

"Okay, that one was kind of loud."

He hadn't even noticed that he was hungry, though once he really thought about it he shouldn't be surprised that he had animal sounds coming from his stomach. He had been hard at work all day long micromanaging every little detail of the invasion plans. The Water Tribe warrior was determined to make sure that the invasion went off without a hitch because it would be all or nothing; a failure in his plans could mean enslavement for the entire world. If he half-assed or over looked anything then that…

Sokka shook his head violently; stopping that train of thought before it even got started. He couldn't start doubting himself now or else he was sure to overlook something that could potentially cost lives. He had to keep a clear head. And an essential part of keeping a clear head was keeping a full stomach.

For the first time since he had come back from his meeting with the Council of Five early that morning, Sokka decided he should probably take a break. Pushing himself away from the table Sokka wandered into the guest house's kitchen. As official dignitaries the avatar and his companions were treated to all of the privileges that came along with their VIP status; the best perk- in Sokka's opinion- was a fully stocked kitchen that was renewed every other day by servants from the palace.

Searching through the cupboards the ravenous Water Tribe warrior extracted a loaf of bread and a wedge of cheese then proceeded to the icebox where he took out a large chunk of meat; he didn't know what animal it came from but he knew it was delicious. Slicing himself a few thick wedges, Sokka piled the meat onto the slices of bread, throwing a couple of slices of cheese on top. The young warrior took a step back to observe his creation.

It was a thing of beauty, but something was missing. Cupping his chin in his hand Sokka observed the teetering tower of meat, cheese and bread before it finally struck him.

"Cassava peppers and sweet soy sauce to give it that sweet and spicy taste!"

Grinning at his own culinary genius, Sokka quickly gathered his desired ingredients and liberally added them to his sandwich. Mouth watering, the young warrior was on the verge of taking the first bite when he heard the sound of footsteps in the hall outside of the kitchen.

"You should still be resting," the young warrior said while turning around and stuffing his sandwich into his mouth. He had been expecting to see the still injured Soeharto, but was surprised to see Toph standing in the doorway.

"What are you still doing here," is what Sokka meant to say when he saw the blind earthbender; however, since his mouth was currently full of sandwich it ended up sounding more like '_Whaa ah yarstee heek?_'

"Okay, now try using actual words and sentences this time," she deadpanned.

Sokka managed to swallow down the food clogging up his mouth and voiced the question again.

"What happened to your plans to meet up with your parents? I thought you had already left."

"Who said that anything happened," the earthbender replied, the smallest drop of defensiveness in her tone. Sokka, not one to press an issue when he was starving and there was food to be devoured, simply shrugged.

"Okey-dokey," he intoned before turning his attention back to demolishing his sandwich.

Toph put her arms behind her head and kicked at the ground a bit, trying to appear nonchalant; the act didn't work on Sokka though. It was clear that there was something that she was not telling him. However, given how hard she was trying to look cool and composed it was apparently not one of those secrets that she wanted to keep to herself.

'_Still, she'd probably get all touchy if I came right out and asked her what's wrong,_' Sokka thought to himself as he greedily licked the sweet sauce off of his fingertips.

The best course was probably just to stand there and ignore her; Toph was no whore for attention, but she hated being ignored by people. A few more seconds of silence and some extra loud smacks of his lips and…

"I ended up not going."

She speaks.

The Water Tribe warrior looked up from his sandwich, now reduced to a single corner, to look at the younger girl. Her eyes were directed towards the ground as if her sightless eyes were able to examine the tiles on the kitchen floor.

"Well why not," Sokka asked, genuinely puzzled. "I thought you wanted to, y'know, explain why you ran away and try to make them understand why you had to leave like that."

Toph sighed and walked over towards the counter, hopping up to take a seat right next to where Sokka was standing.

"I did. I mean, I still do…. It's just…"

She paused searching for the right words to come to her; she was no good at this '_expressing your feelings'_ shit.

"I was halfway to the meeting place and… I just stopped."

"You just stopped," the warrior asked. The earthbender nodded.

"It's like I had all of these ideas about how their reactions to this whole reunion thing would play out; best-case, worst-case, kind-of-okay-case, the works. And then, as I'm thinking about all this, I realize that they're bound to ask me about what I've, what _we've_, been doing all this time and I'm going to have to tell them. I know that if I tell mom and dad the truth, they're gonna freak out and try to take me back home."

"And if you lie," Sokka interjected, filling in the blanks, "then it kind of takes away the point of coming to see them in the first place."

"Exactly," Toph replied bitterly.

"There's no way I'm gonna let them take me back home, I mean we haven't kicked nearly enough Fire Nation ass yet, but once they hear about the drill and the Serpent's Pass and those Freedom Fighters…"

Sokka noticed Toph's shift into a somber tone as she mentioned their deceased allies. He had noticed that the little earthbender had been down following the events at Lake Laogai, but she seemed to be taking it harder than he had first thought.

"It's still getting to you huh? Jet and those guys."

Toph snorted and punched him lightly in the arm.

"How's it not going to get to me? That was the first time that somebody we knew actually… I mean, I only knew them for a few hours, but for all of them to go out like _that_," she shook her head, "That's just so wrong. And how am I going to explain all of this to a couple of overprotective control freaks?"

Sokka had to admit that the girl had a point; how _could_ she explain to her parents all of the things that she had been through without giving them heart attacks? His dad had been to war- he'd seen more of it than Sokka had, in fact- and the young warrior felt confident that he could talk about all of his grisly experiences with Hakoda and not have to hold anything back.

But Toph? The blind, pampered only child of one of the richest families in the Earth Kingdom whose entire family treated her like a china doll? Her parents wouldn't be able to wrap their minds around it.

"…So what are you about to do right now," Sokka asked. Toph started in surprise.

"I dunno, I guess hang out around here; you seen Twinkle Toes or Queenie around anywhere?"

Stuffing the last little bits of his sandwich into his mouth, Sokka chewed and swallowed before answering.

"They're both gone. Katara and I had messages for our dad and since neither one of us could go to Chameleon Bay, Aang and Appa agreed to run them there for us. They actually left a little while after you did. And my sister left to do some kind of errand a couple of hours ago so there's no telling when she's getting back, and Soeharto went to the palace to play Oto because he heard a captain of the guard was supposed to be a grand master or something like that."

"So you're saying that I'm stuck with you," the blind earthbender exclaimed in mock horror.

"That's about the size of it," Sokka replied archly, causing Toph to laugh at him.

"And what were you planning on doing," she asked.

"I was just going to head up to the palace; I'd thought I seen some Kyoshi warriors while I was there this morning and I was going to check up on them until I got sidetracked. Besides, if I stay here I'll be too tempted to work and I've already done way too much of that today."

The blind little earthbender shrugged moodily before agreeing to accompany the young warrior. While she wasn't all that thrilled to be going to search for Kyoshi warriors, it was true that she had nothing better to do with her time. At least she had something to do now.

The two set off and were soon walking through the massive gates of the Forbidden City, making small talk along the way. As they passed the grand threshold into the gargantuan courtyard Sokka could not help but feel a little bit sorry for his blind companion. It struck him as a shame that Toph would never be able to actually "see" the incredible architecture of the royal palace.

"So, who do we have to see to make sure we're not up here all night searching for the Kyoshi warriors," the earthbender asked. "This palace is big enough to be a city by itself."

"Relax; I'm friends with some of the guards in this wing of the palace. They know where everybody is."

Leaving the courtyard and entering into the building, Sokka led the way down the passage towards the room where the palace guards for the Western Wing of the complex had their headquarters.

"This is kinda weird," Toph exclaimed out of the blue. Sokka turned and looked at her.

"What is?"

"This is the royal palace; there should be servants and ministers and all types of people running around in here, but I'm not picking up all that much movement."

Sokka was on the verge of dismissing her comment when he stopped and noticed that it was unusually quiet. The Western Wing of the palace complex was the place where a lot of the ministers and administrators that ran the Earth Kingdom government had their offices. He had been here enough times to know that he should have been hearing the ambient sounds of bureaucrats at work but instead he heard next to nothing.

Where were all of the people anyway; sure it was getting a little late in the afternoon, but it eerie to have this many people absent. The beginnings of a familiar cold feeling began to settle into the Water Tribe warrior's stomach. He quickened his pace, leaving Toph trailing behind him.

Approaching the door to their squad room, Sokka was surprised to see that the door was closed. When he tried to open it he found that it was locked; biting back a curse the young warrior stepped back and braced himself before planting a jump kick to the door. When the first strike failed to knock the door open Sokka drew himself up and began attacking the door ferociously.

"Sokka, what the hell," the little earthbender yelled. By the time she reached the warrior's side he had just managed to force the door open.

Toph felt him take one step inside of the room and then immediately hurry out, bending over and gagging.

"FUCK!!"

Sokka yelled the expletive for all it was worth while trying to keep the sandwich he had consumed less than half an hour ago in his stomach.

"Sokka," Toph said quietly, "is..is what I…I mean, is it really like what I think it is in there?"

He looked at her, stared right into those sightless orbs of hers and suddenly he didn't pity her for her sightlessness. She was blessed to be blind, because she didn't have to see…that. Gathering his shattered composure, the young warrior's agile mind immediately sprang into action. The Earth King; they had to make sure the Earth King was alright.

"We've gotta go, now," Sokka said, breaking into a run.

"Hold up, go where," Toph exclaimed, exasperated at the dramatic turn of events.

"The Council of Five's chamber is close by. They should still be in session right now; if we get there and warn them that we've got traitors running around in the palace, they can mobilize a response and secure the Earth King."

Rounding a corner the duo stopped in front of the massive stone doors that housed the meeting chamber of the Council of Five, the supreme military authority of the Earth Kingdom. The Water Tribe warrior moved to push the doors open when his arm was caught by Toph.

"Sokka, what are we gonna do if they're in on it," she asked.

The young warrior sighed and rolled his eyes in world-weary resignation; that horrifying thought hadn't even crossed his mind. This really did happen way too often to them.

"You-you just do your thing and I'll do my thing and together we can do… our thing."

Toph cocked an eyebrow at the scatterbrained statement. "Our thing?"

Sokka didn't bother answering her; he was too occupied with pushing the massive door open. When the young warrior first saw the familiar green and gold armor of the Kyoshi warriors his heart took a leap for joy. But within seconds he noticed the bodies of the Council of Five strewn about the room, their bodies twisted into unnatural positions; the monster of a Dai Lee agent who had blood up to his elbows an; his sister lying in a heap at the feet of a Kyoshi warrior.

"KATARA!"

Looking up, one of the warriors smiled sadistically at the two of them.

"Well, well isn't this a nice surprise; both of the water peasants and the little blind girl walking right into my hands."

"Azula," Toph spat in disgust. "Please tell me this _is not_ happening!"

"What have done with my sister," Sokka shouted in rage.

"Oh don't worry; she's just unconscious. I'm not going to kill her; she's been quite helpful, helped me track down a long lost relative of mine. You all are going to make wonderful hostages."

A large part of Sokka wanted to run forward and get his sister away from those monsters, but the rational part of his brain kept him from acting on his impulses. His sister was alive and whether or not Azula realized it she had just confirmed that Katara was going to stay that way, at least for now. Looking left and right, the Water Tribe warrior noticed that the giant agent and the other fake Kyoshi warrior- Sokka recognized her as the creepy chick with the knives- started to encircle him and Toph.

'_Okay, we're outnumbered, I'm unarmed except for my boomerang and that knife in my boot and the bat-shit crazy Princess of the Fire Nation is holding my sister hostage…_'

"Toph, is there anything under us," Sokka said out of the corner of his mouth.

"What, you mean besides the floor," she replied sarcastically.

"You're not getting it. Is there anything _un_-_der_ us?!!"

Sokka hoped the desperation in his voice was getting through to the girl because if it wasn't, then they were done for.

"What are you- _oooh_!"

A bitter grimace spread across the blind girl's features; this was going to be _so_ uncool. Just as their enemies moved to attack them the stone floor under their feet of the duo rumbled and then suddenly, it wasn't there anymore. While one second before they had been standing on solid ground, Toph and Sokka found themselves falling through space and darkness

"I HATE YOU SOKKA," the blind earthbender yelled as she tumbled through the air.

"I HATE ME TOO," the Water Tribe warrior replied, and prayed that this cavern they were falling into didn't have any sharp rocks at the bottom.


	20. Chapter 20

_Not much to say. Here's chapter 20._

Chapter 20

Lee knew that someone had been following him. Sure he hadn't seen anyone tailing him, but his gut was telling him that he needed to make himself scarce, and soon. And it may have just been his paranoia talking but he thought the man behind the front counter of his building was giving him shady looks. It occurred to him that he might have been freaking out over nothing; he had still made up his mind to skip town. It was better to be safe than sorry.

He should have been long gone by now. He should have been on the monorail with his loot and his hide still intact. That would have been the smart thing to do; it would have been what his instincts were screaming at him to do. After he had gotten back to his apartment and applied the herbs to the burns on his hands he had made up his mind to get out of the city before anything bad could come crashing down on him. After all, there was nothing keeping him there.

He had packed up every possession that he cared to take with him, gathered up all of the money that he had made from his various crimes; all he had to do was go out of the door, and down the road towards the rail station. He was halfway to making his escape, halfway to saying goodbye to this festering pit of a city and every cursed soul in it.

And then he thought of Jin and he was forced to stop.

Jin was still here- still a prisoner in that brothel. The very thought of her being forced to stay in that place made him furious in a way he had never felt before. But what could he do? Prostitutes were expensive and he didn't have nearly enough money to buy her from the house. He'd miss her he supposed, but he there was nothing to do about the situation, was there? He stood up and started walking towards the door.

'_Nothing I can do. I've got to worry about myself; I don't have enough money…'_

His hands shook, his jaw clenched; it suddenly became very hard to draw air into his lungs and he felt the blood in his veins heat up. In an explosion of violent anger he turned violently drove his foot through his wall. What the hell was he thinking? Not having enough money!?

He was a fucking criminal for Agni's sake! If he wanted something he'd just take it!

And what he wanted right now more than anything else was to know that Jin would never have to work on her back ever again. He cared about her; he _really_ cared about her. It was the strangest feeling he had ever felt. What Lee felt for Jin didn't feel like love- or at least it wasn't like what he had heard other people describe love as feeling like.

The emotion the firebender felt for the prostitute wasn't wholesome; it was raw and it was furious and it was obstinate. It was good and at the same time it hurt. It made him want to do things; desperate, violent, destructive things for her sake because she was like him. The world had made a mockery of their hopes and stood idly by as they had to swallow their pain and forge on ahead, alone. Lee had long since stopped obsessing over the morality of his actions; he determined for himself what was right and what was wrong. Just up and abandoning Jin?

_That_ was wrong.

Dropping his bag and grabbing one of the daggers that were strewn about his apartment, Lee stalked out of his apartment and onto the rainy streets. In no time he was in the Middle Ring standing outside of the brothel.

He walked right in the front door, he knew exactly what he was going to do; it was automatic. He blew past the hostess, not even sparing her an extra glance. He hurried up the stairs; a large eunuch came down from the top to stop him. He drew his knife and gashed the thugs head; it wasn't deep enough to kill, but was deep enough draw blood. The eunuch screamed bloody murder; he probably thought he was going to die from the amount of blood coming out of his scalp. The thug had obviously never been in a serious fight. Any experienced fighter knew that head wounds always looked worse than they really were.

Coming to her room, Lee practically ripped the screen door out of his frame when he flung it open.

"Lee," Jin exclaimed in surprise. She hurriedly pushed her client away from her and rushed to cover up her exposed breasts.

He was in luck, she was still mostly clothed. The john that had been crawling on top of her didn't look too happy though.

"The hell do you think your doing," the balding man screeched, coming right into the scarred intruder's face.

Catching the man by the throat, Lee looked dead into his eyes. "Leave now, or I rip out your throat."

The scarred vagrant wasn't sure that his weakened hands had the strength or dexterity to rip out another man's throat, but he certainly _sounded_ as if he could pull it off. He watched dispassionately as the blood drained from the john's and his eyes began filling with desperate tears. When Lee finally decided to loosen his grip the man practically fell over himself to get out of the room.

Now that they were alone together, Lee turned his attention back towards Jin; the working girl was holding her garments closed and staring up at him with a look that could have been wonderment but also could just as easily have been terror.

'_Alright, I've got her all to myself. I should probably say something,'_ the firebender thought. Words, however, did not seem to want to form in Lee's mouth.

His body froze up as he realized that, now that the action was over, he had no idea what to say to get her to come with him. As the scarred vagrant looked down upon her delicate, shivering form, the ludicrousness of what he had just done and what he had been planning, or rather what he hadn't planned on doing after he got here suddenly assaulted his mind.

He was a criminal; a mercenary, thief and all around scoundrel. Good whores were valuable property; by breaking in this brothel and taking one of the prostitutes he was committing a very serious act of theft. The law would undoubtedly be on him; he had nothing to offer this girl except an uncertain and danger filled life on the road. He suddenly felt like such a child; it was so like him to rush into something without taking the time to think things through. The Old Man had always told him that and once again he had not heeded his advice.

"…Lee, Lee….LEE!!"

The feel of a pair of small hands on his face brought him back to reality. Jin, apparently recovered from her initial moment of shock, was trying to grab his attention. She had covered her nakedness with a simple green cloak. Seeing her up this close to him, Lee suddenly found his voice.

"I want you with me," he said hurriedly.

The scarred vagrant got to watch the girl's face grow bright red; he wondered at what she was getting so worked up for. Then he thought how what he said must have sounded; he felt his own face starting to heat up. He rushed to explain himself further.

"Jin," he said, taking both of her hands in his. The working girl started at the gesture, not quite sure what to make of it.

"I'm going to be leaving Ba Sing Se and… I'm. I mean, I…"

Damnit, why was this so hard! It wasn't as if he had all day to do this. He may have knocked out the eunuch, but it was a sure bet that somebody had already run to get the police by now. He had to wrap it up. Fortunately, Jin was smart enough to pick up on the situation.

"Lee, are you trying to kidnap me," she asked innocently.

"…Yes, are you going to come-mmfffh!"

The rest of the scarred vagrant's sentence was cut off as Jin brought her lips to his. The kiss was rough and running over with desperation, but to Lee it still somehow seemed sweeter than any other kiss he had ever received. They broke apart after a handful of seconds and the firebender looked at the short girl in some surprise; Jin wasn't usually the one to take the lead in things like that.

"If you two are going to go, you'd better hurry it up."

The young pair turned around to see that they were being watched to a group of Jin's coworkers. Lee was on his guard, but the ladies of the evening weren't making any moves to try and stop them or to alert the police. Jin ran over and hugged one of the women who was slightly older than herself.

"I'm gonna miss you Pip. All the rest of you too."

"Same here dearie," she replied, squeezing the younger girl. Turning her eyes to Lee, Pip said in a deathly serious voice

"You take good care of this one, y'hear!"

The firebender nodded before grabbing Jin by the elbow and ushering her out of the room, past the other women and out into the street.

* * *

"You feel anybody around us?"

The voice that spoke the question, usually so vibrant and animated, was flat and wary. Toph couldn't stop herself from cringing at the sound; the Sokka that she knew wasn't supposed to sound like that. Placing a calloused palm on the wall of the cave, the blind earthbender reached out with her ability trying to locate enemy pursuers.

Toph took her hand away from the wall.

"Nah, they're still stumbling around; it seems like we've gone far enough into these tunnels that they don't know which way is which anymore. We should be good."

Sokka hung his head and sighed in relief. He reached up and unloosened his wolf's tail, letting his hair fall around his face. The young warrior ran his fingers through his ebony locks as he stared into the inky darkness all around him and struggled to fight off the feelings of exhaustion he felt creeping into his muscles.

"So we've got a second to rest," Sokka stated before falling to the ground beside the little earthbender.

At least something was going their way. As he wiped the sweat running down his forehead, the Water Tribe warrior was honestly stunned at how quickly their fortunes have turned; just this morning they had had the initiative. He had been planning, for the first time in decades, to take the war to the Fire Nation. And then Azula and her flunkies had to show up and screw the pooch.

His and Toph's escape down into the tunnels under the palace had been an act of pure desperation driven by an absence of better ideas. The fall from the Council of Five's chamber had been a bit farther than Sokka had hoped and while the Warrior had managed to catch himself when he landed, Toph had come down hard. She had hurt one of her ankles pretty severely; it was so bad that she couldn't walk on her own.

With Azula sending Dai Lee agents after them, the duo had had to work in tandem in order to escape. Since the blind earthbender wasn't able to move on her own, Sokka had carried her on his back and since Sokka wasn't able to see in the complete darkness of the caverns, he had to rely on periodic directions from Toph, for whom the darkness meant nothing.

Resting for just enough time to get his second wind, the Water Tribe warrior pushed himself back to his feet.

"C'mon munchkin, time to get going."

"Oh, go to hell Snoozles," Toph fired back tiredly. She tried to hop up onto her own feet and swore hotly when she tried to put her weight on her injured ankle.

"I told you not to try and walk on that foot," Sokka said in exasperation.

"I can pull my own weight Sokka; I don't need you to help me," Toph snapped petulantly. She tried to take a step and almost fell over. She couldn't fight down the animal grunt of pain that came bubbling out of her throat.

The Water Tribe warrior sighed; she could be such a child sometimes. He reached out to where he thought she was, trying to lend a helping hand. Holding herself up against the wall, the blind earthbender went rigid as she felt a hand running over her chest. Toph's natural first impulse was to get mad and bat the boy's offending appendage away. Just as she was about to, however, her entire brain shut down as she realized what was happening.

Sokka was _touching_ her; he was touching _her_. And she wasn't even asleep this time.

"Toph? That is you, right," Sokka asked.

"U-wha-um, ye-yeah," she stuttered.

"Look, I get that you have this thing about being independent and all, but…."

Toph heard Sokka's voice; she knew that he was talking, but she wasn't taking in any of the words. His whole diatribe was going in one of her ears and directly out of the other. How could she focus on something as prosaic words when he STILL HADN'T MOVED HIS HAND!

He had to be doing it on purpose; his hand was on her breast. He had to know what he was touching, didn't he? He couldn't have been so dense, right? Though she was blind, she knew she wasn't very big; still, she did have something up there. So that meant he had noticed, right? What was this?! Was this just his dense way of feeling her up without seeming too obvious about it? It had to be…

"Oofh!"

The blind earthbender was shaken out of her stupor when she felt a hard slap to the chest. Sokka, who had come to the end of one of his better inspirational monologues, had gave given a supportive pat to what he had thought was the little earthbender's back. Thankfully, Sokka never saw the kick to his family jewels coming.

"You ASSHOLE."

"Jeeze, what is with you?"

"What's with _me_? I'm fourteen, I'm short, and I still haven't grown boobs!"

Awkward Pause.

"What the hell are you talking about!?!"

Uncomfortable silence.

"…..Nothing. Let's just go."

Climbing up onto the young warrior's back, the earthbender forcibly jerked his head to the left, eliciting a yelp from her ride.

"Just keep going in that direction for about twenty paces. From there, the path starts going upwards and we should be close enough to the surface for me to earthbend us an exit."

"We're beyond the walls of the palace, right," Sokka asked. Their escape from Azula wouldn't mean much if they burst out of the ground right in the midst of a group of mutinous Dai Lee agents.

"How should I know? I can't really feel buildings and stuff above my head when I'm underground and have to use my hands to see instead of my feet."

"You don't know where we are? You mean we could have been going around in circles all this time?"

"Hey, don't bitch to me," Toph snapped. "It's your fault we're scrambling around like one and a half badger moles."

"Okay, okay, calm down," Sokka said, trying to placate the irate girl on his back. "Look, given how long we've walked, we're probably outside of the Forbidden City's outer wall. So we should be alright to break the surface."

'_Well that's just peachy_,' Sokka thought to himself bitterly.

He noticed that the ground beneath his feet was indeed starting to go uphill. Slowly placing one foot in front of the other, the Water Tribe warrior trudged through the darkness; he stumbled every now and then when his foot ran into a rock and slid on some loose dirt. After a few more steps, a tap on his shoulder from the earthbender told him that he could stop. Catching the signal he sat Toph gently onto the ground, but still kept hold of her shoulder so that she could put her weight on him.

"I kinda need both of my arms for this Snoozles," she chided.

The warrior decided to ignore her sarcasm. "You sure you're up for this."

"_Pfft_. Like I'm gonna spend the rest of my life stuck in a hole with you."

Pushing Sokka away from her, the little earthbender tottered on one leg for a second before firmly setting her injured foot down on the ground. Her whole leg erupted in a wave of pain; she didn't even try to suppress her cry of pain this time. Screwing her face into a determined grimace, Toph quickly ran through her earthbending forms. With a violent flourish the blind girl finished her movement; Sokka quickly moved to cover up his face as the orange-red rays of a setting sun assaulted his eyes.

Sticking his head up out of the ground, Sokka was pleased to see that Toph and he had indeed made it past the palace's walls. The air was wet and the surroundings smelled of a fresh rainfall. With a last look around to make sure that nobody was watching, he ducked his head back down into the hole. He opened his mouth to tell Toph the good news, but to rush over to the little earthbender and catch her before she collapsed.

"C'mon, let's get you out of here."

After managing to hoist both of their bodies out of the hole, Sokka took a quick second to examine Toph. Aside from some superficial cuts and bruises- and being covered from tip to toe in dirt- she looked mostly alright; he avoided looking down at her injured ankle for as long as he did. What the young warrior saw when he finally looked down there made him wince.

The skin was almost totally covered in an ugly purple-black bruise and it had swollen to twice it's normal size. Sokka wasn't a healer like his sister, but he was pretty sure that Toph's ankle needed some attention, and soon. Carrying the earthbender bridal style, the Water Tribe warrior scurried back to their guest house. Reaching his destination, Sokka laid her down on one of the beds and ran to find something to make a splint out of.

Toph heard him rummaging around in another room, but since no part of her was in contact with the earth, she couldn't see what he was doing. Sokka was back in short order; he had found some medical supplies when he raided Katara's room.

"So, what's the plan now," Toph asked.

Sokka measured out a length of bandage and began wrapping it around her injured ankle. That was actually a very good question; what _was_ the plan now? It the whole group had been together, Sokka would have just suggested cutting their losses and leaving Ba Sing Se before Azula managed to get her hands on them. The Earth Kingdom falling to the Fire Nation certainly would derail their plans for an invasion, but it wouldn't necessarily destroy them either. As long as Aang was free, they would still have a chance for victory.

The problem was, the whole group wasn't there; Katara was a prisoner of the psycho princess, Soeharto was M.I.A. and Aang still hadn't made it back from Chameleon Bay yet. One thing was for certain; there was absolutely no way that they were going to leave Katara or the old man behind.

So they were back to their original question; what were they going to do?

"You coming up with any bright ideas brain boy," Toph asked. Sokka noticed the tone of her voice had lost a bit of its usual cocky glitz.

"Well, I've got the makings of one."

Finishing up on the splint and setting her ankle down, Sokka pushed himself off of the bed.

"So then lay it on me; what're we gonna do," the earthbender asked eagerly.

"First of all, _we're_ not going to be doing a damn thing. I'm going to go sneak back into the palace and try to find Soeharto and Katara; you're going to stay here and wait until Aang gets back."

Toph, if the look on her face was any indication, was far from pleased.

"What the hell! You can't leave me behind; you'll never survive on your own against three psychos and an army of killer earthbenders. You're gonna need my help in there."

"Toph, you're not coming," the young warrior stated, his tone brooking no argument. He should have known expecting Toph not to argue was beyond naïve. Kicking her legs off of the bed, the blind earthbender climbed to her feet; while she swayed unsteadily, she still managed to keep her feet.

"Give me one good reason why I can't come," she demanded.

Sokka, feeling his own patience coming to an end in this stressful situation, fought down the urge to groan; of course she was going to be difficult.

"Give you one good reason? I'll do you one better and give you two. First; Aang is going to be back any time now and somebody needs to be here to warn him that Azula and the Dai Lee have taken over the palace. And second…"

The young warrior reached out and shoved Toph lightly on her shoulder; the blind earthbender only had time to windmill her arms a few times before she fell over onto her backside.

"…you can barely stand up! How are you supposed to help me?"

"I can…"

"No. No you can't Toph," Sokka said firmly.

His expression softened as he saw the anguished look on the younger girl's face. Kneeling down on the floor beside her, he took one of her hands into his own and gave it a supportive squeeze.

"Look don't worry about it; I know the palace pretty well. I'll sneak in, see what's up then sneak back out, come get you and Aang and then we can all go kick serious ass and rescue Katara and Soeharto."

He sounded so sure of himself; Toph laughed in his face.

"That easy, huh?"

Sokka smiled cockily. "_Pfft_. Of course."

Of course it wasn't going to be that easy and they both knew it. Still, this was part of their routine; downplaying the situation and denying the obvious dangers that they were putting themselves into were part of the game that they played with each other.

On his way out Sokka grabbed his club and an extra hair tie. He looked out of the window onto the walls of the royal palace; those massive barriers had seemed so impenetrable just this morning. Now…

Well, now this just meant that those walls were just one more thing that the group had to tear down.

* * *

It had taken a long time for Lee to usher Jin down to the Lower Ring, definitely much longer than it had taken him to get up to the Middle Ring's Red Light District in the first place. The scarred vagrant was still paranoid, fearing the phantom shapes he envisioned lurking in the shadows; he wanted to get out of town, sooner rather than later. Without a doubt, the girl was slowing him down.

Still, as Lee felt the gentle pressure of the now ex-prostitute's full lips on his own; as she ran her tongue across his teeth; as she wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed her body up against his so that he could feel every glorious inch of her, he found that he didn't really mind the delay at all. It seemed like every few minutes the girl would pull him aside into some side alley or back him up against a vendor's tall and they'd just start making out in full view of the public.

The first few times this had happened he had tried- reluctantly- to get push her off of him and keep walking towards their destination. But he soon found his own will bending to hers; he never had a chance. He was a young, healthy man with young, healthy hormones; how was he supposed to say no to a beautiful young woman who wanted to ravish him in the middle of the street?

It was much easier and a lot more fun to follow the path of least resistance. That was the reason why, for the last ten minutes, he and Jin had been making out in the stairwell of his building.

Through some miraculous act of willpower, Lee managed to disengage himself from the girl long enough to open and usher them both through the door that led to his floor.

"So this is where you live," Jin said while looking around the deserted floor.

"Is it not what you were expecting," Lee replied, a questioning eyebrow cocked in her direction.

The young woman just giggled and stretched her back; the firebender hungrily watched the outline of her breasts through the thin fabric of her clothing.

"Truthfully, I kind of envisioned you living in a cave."

"Really? A cave? In Ba Sing Se?"

She shot him a mock sour look at his condescending tone.

"Shit, what can I say? You seemed more like the hill bandit type than the street thug type; give me break."

The scarred vagrant snorted derisively at her comment; in response Jin stuck her tongue out at him and blew a great big raspberry. Seeing his chance, Lee closed the distance between the two of them and wrapped his arms around her waist, his hands grabbing handfuls of her rear. Jin could feel his desire for her pressing up against her hip bone; she looked up at him slyly, a knowing smirk on her face.

"Somebody's getting a little excited; are you sure you want to do this now? We've got to get out of town, remember?"

'_Shit_…'

He had said that, hadn't he? It was still true that they had to get out of town, and quickly- his fugitive's instincts were telling him that he was in immediate danger and wouldn't be safe until he had put some miles in between himself and the walls of Ba Sing Se. But there was another instinct- baser, animalistic, and powerful- that was telling him that delaying for another half hour or so wouldn't affect things too much.

Lee leaned down and put his mouth next to her ear, speaking in a deep, lustful tone.

"I'm not the only one here who's excited; I can hear you getting wet right now."

He traced the edge of her lobe with his tongue and felt her shiver beneath his touch. He began tracing butterfly kisses along her neck and was rewarded by a hand slipped stealthily down the front of his pants.

"None of your neighbors are going to mind?"

"What neighbors? I'm the only permanent tenant on this floor; we can get as loud as we want to."

The young woman in his arms grinned cheekily. "Wow; my man has a whole floor to himself? I'm really coming up in the world."

Their lips met and Lee's entire world suddenly seemed…bearable. No, that was a lie; it was more than bearable- it was contentment, it was enjoyment, it was…happiness? As he and Jin stumbled through the doorway into his room, in the back of his mind he had to wonder.

This feeling he was feeling right now; was this happiness? It felt so much different than anything he had experienced before, even in those hazy days before his mother disappeared, back when he still thought his father loved him, he had never had someone make him feel this good. Before he knew it she had kicked him onto the bed, quickly mounting him while he lay flat on his back.

The scarred vagrant reached up and felt her breasts, pushing aside the material of her robe and gently grasping the dusky flesh below. Jin moaned softly as he softly twisted her nipples between his fingers. As he raised his back off of the bed to take the offered breast into his mouth the two lovers were interrupted by a loud rapping at the door. The scarred vagrant and the young woman let out simultaneous snarls of displeasure.

Nothing kills the mood like somebody trying to break the door down while you're trying to have some "alone time".

"I'll get it," Jin said, righting her clothes before hopping off of her man and stomping towards the door.

Lee really should have known better; as soon as he heard that knock on his door, he should have known that something was seriously wrong. Hadn't he been the one to say that this whole floor was deserted besides him? Lee, distracted by his own frustrated lust and annoyance at the unwanted interruption realized a second later than he should have that there was no reason for anyone to be knocking on his door.

One second, however, was more than enough time for Jin to get to the door.

"Wait, don't open that door."

One second was long enough to make his warning too late; by the time his warning had left his throat, Jin had already pulled the door open.

"Hi!"

In the seventeen years that she had spent on this earth, Jin had encountered all types of people and most of the time she had seen them at their worst. Her experiences had left her so jaded that there were very few things that could leave her at a loss. Seeing a grinning, green armored girl in clown makeup standing outside of her door was certainly strange, but it wasn't enough to render her mute and motionless.

That clown girl being flanked by a group of extremely scary looking men whose hands were encased in stone? That could do it.

Quicker than Jin's eyes could follow; the clown girl's hands shot out towards her and struck several different points on her body. The young woman only felt the jarring impact of the first blow; after that initial strike to her upper body, the rest of her immediately went numb. The world turned white as all of the blood left her head and suddenly, her legs couldn't support her own weight anymore.

Lee was up and on his feet the second that Jin opened the door; when she began to collapse, he was there to grab her by the waist and pulled her backwards, away from the door and whatever was coming next. From his position on the floor, the scarred vagrant caught a glimpse of something green and gold somersaulting through his doorway to land daintily a few feet away from them.

The flourish that the girl put on when she whirled around was appropriately theatrical.

"Zuko! Long time, no see!"

His blood ran cold at the sight of that incredibly sweet and innocent smile on her face. The beads of terrified sweat began to form in earnest on his forehead and his guts twisted themselves into sailor's knots.

"Hey Ty Lee."

Lee's mind went into overdrive; if the acrobat was here then that meant that _she_ was here too. The firebender felt a chilling stab of fear course through him. He wasn't afraid of Ty Lee; nobody could really be _afraid_ of the bubbly little acrobat. He was afraid of who she represented, afraid of whose name attached to her actions.

He tried his very best to keep the fear out of his voice, but he still heard it; the tremor of uncertainty lying just beneath his cold bluster. His sister would have caught it. She would have laughed at him and taunted him; she would savor the pleasure of having him writhe in his terror at her very presence.

Azula would....

"Wow, you're a hard fella to track down. Oh hey, have you been working out?"

No, it didn't matter what Azula would do; Azula wasn't here. He had to focus on the situation; he wasn't dealing with his sister this time, he was dealing with Ty Lee. He could handle Ty Lee; he just had to be smart about it.

"What are you doing here Ty Lee? Where is my sister," he asked through clenched teeth, his eyes roaming around the room.

"Well, I'm kinda here to capture you. Sorry."

The girl did sound genuinely sorry; in the back of his mind, Lee was noted that she probably was. He remembered that about Ty Lee- she was always spoke how she felt.

"Oh and Azula and Mai couldn't be here, they're busy at the palace. So it looks like it's just the two- er, three of us!"

He briefly registered her words but was preoccupied with analyzing his predicament. This situation was definitely not in his favor. First of all, he was virtually weaponless; all he had were the small pair of knives he kept hidden on his person and they weren't going to do him much good as offensive weapons. Lee knew that he most likely wasn't going to win a straight up hand-to-hand fight with Ty Lee; it had been years since he had seen the acrobat in action but it was a safe bet that her martial arts skills hadn't gotten rusty in the meantime.

He couldn't firebend either; the building was made of wood so if he started throwing flames around, they'd all burn to death. If he had wanted to commit Agni Ro, he would have set himself alight years ago.

Without a decent blade to fend her off, she'd take out his pressure points and leave him immobilized just like the girl he had cradled in his arms.

The second problem with this situation; he was outnumbered. A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed that the acrobat had brought backup- and they were Dai Lee agents no less. Agni only knows how Azula was able to swing that. Having more people to get through was never a good thing for someone trying to make an escape, but since his room was on the fourth floor, at least he didn't have to worry about them earthbending. It also was likely that they wouldn't be participating in the fight as they would only get in Ty Lee's way- they were there to keep him from running away.

But that was his other problem; he couldn't just run away. He had Jin to worry about, and after being struck by Ty Lee the former prostitute was quite literally dead weight. But he couldn't bring himself to just abandon Jin to the clutches of the Dai Lee- he had heard stories about what they did to women who fell afoul of them. He quickly looked down at Jin's face and was surprised at her expression; she looked more angry than afraid.

"You were right; we should have hurried up. My bad," she whispered.

She could still make jokes. The firebender almost laughed. His girl had some fight left in her; she had faith that they would get through this. She believed that he could figure this out so _he_ had to believe that he could figure this out. He refocused on the acrobat, watching the position of her body. Ty Lee was a girl with a hair trigger; relaxed and yet always primed to snap into action at the least provocation.

"C'mon Zuko, this'll go a lot easier if you just come along quietly," the acrobat said as she cracked her knuckles. Her smile went from innocent to competitive; the Ty Lee version of a scary look.

She was laying down her ultimatum; either give up now, or she was going to have to hurt him.

"You got back any feeling in your legs yet," the firebender whispered down to Jin.

"A little bit," she replied.

That was good. The fact that she felt anything this quickly meant that Ty Lee hadn't hit her with her full barrage when he pulled her out of the doorway.

"Don't move until I say so," he whispered back, before laying her down on the floor.

Without wasting any more time, Lee lunged at Ty Lee. The acrobat matched his aggressive move with a charge of her own, her fist drawn back to strike. The instead of readying his own strike the firebender went low and tackled her legs. Seeing his move, Ty Lee attempted to hop over his outstretched arms but was only able to clear one of her feet; Lee was able to clip her left ankle, screwing up her jump and causing her to land off balance.

Poised on his hands and knees the firebender pushed himself off of the ground to catch her before she could regain her balance. The acrobat proved to be more resilient than he had anticipated, however, spinning on one foot like a dancer and meeting his move head on. Lee had to backpedal to stay out of reach of her arms and was barely able to avoid a blow that would have immobilized his shoulder; he was in trouble.

Seeing that she now had the initiative, Ty Lee went on the attack, throwing a barrage of jabs and open handed strikes at Lee's body. The scarred vagrant concentrated on protecting his core, using his forearms to block attacks to his sternum and tucking his head to avoid a strike to the neck. He stayed defensive; the acrobat had quicker hands. He knew that if he tried to go blow to blow with her he'd open himself up for a strike and she would immobilize him.

Ty Lee kept up the pressure, her hands seeking one of the vital pressure points on her enemy's body, but the boy just wasn't being cooperative, blocking and turning away from all her attacks. Lee, however, was running out of room to retreat. A confident smile spread across her face; a few more steps and she'd have him in a corner with no place to run.

The firebender, however, was not unaware of his situation. He had long since memorized the dimensions of his apartment and knew that he couldn't be more than a few steps away from the wall. Feeling the heel of his trailing foot make contact with the wall, the firebender waited until he saw Ty Lee draw herself back for a hard strike. Timing her attack, Lee dipped his shoulder and dodged to the side; he felt the breeze of her fist going over his head. It was his turn to take the initiative.

His hands shot forth, one hand grabbing hold of the thick green cloth around her neck and the other grasping her by the shoulder. Twisting his body around, the firebender used the momentum of his turn to throw the lighter girl over his shoulder, sending her through the cheap plaster wall into the adjacent room.

The acrid white dust from the destroyed wall made the scarred vagrant cough. That trip through the wall should have been enough to rattle Ty Lee's brains. Lee scanned the room; he maybe, _maybe_, had ten seconds to figure out what to do next so he……

Wait; Jin, where was Jin?!?!

The spot on the floor where he had left her was empty. A cry of dread and rage ripped through his lungs as he ran out into the hall. Looking down the hall, he saw the retreating backs of Dai Lee team Ty Lee had brought with her; they were headed for the stairs. He took off after them.

"STOP," he yelled. The trailing agent turned to face him and took a wide legged defensive stance.

Dai Lee agents weren't trained for hand to hand combat. But they were big and they were tough and their fists were encased in stone; even if he was a barely competent fighter, he would still slow him down for those few crucial seconds that it took for Ty Lee to catch up with him. Taking a deep breath, the firebender ran right up to the earthbender's face and blew out a gust of superheated air; it wasn't the Breath of Fire, but scalding hot steam was almost as bad.

Hopping over the screaming man, firebender burst into the stairwell; looking over the edge he saw the Dai Lee agents hustling down the stairs. One of them had Jin slung over his shoulder, but they hadn't even gone down to the next floor yet. Leaping over the rail, the firebender managed to catch the banister on the floor below; he almost lost his grip but managed to pull himself over and into the path of the agents.

The one in the lead tried to throw a punch. Lee ducked under the arm and threw a hard strike to the agent's armpit, his fist hitting the bundle of nerves under the skin, causing the agent's body to seize up and topple over. Moving past the first felled Dai Lee agent, Lee ran up the stairs. There were three more Dai Lee agents on the stairs and as soon as they saw him they immediately turned around and started running back up the stairs, this time heading for the roof.

"LEE HELP ME," Jin cried.

Preoccupied with rushing after the agents, Lee could do nothing when he was blindsided by a kick from Ty Lee as he passed by the door to the fourth floor. Slamming back against the banister, the scarred vagrant felt his feet leave the ground and the pull of gravity tipping him over the rail. Panic set in on Lee's mind as the prospect of falling to his death seemed like a foregone conclusion.

Just at the moment when he was sure that it was all over for him, he felt someone grasp the front of his shirt and yanking him back onto his feet. Gold eyes met brown as Lee realized that the one who had saved him was Ty Lee. The two froze for a second, as if they were unsure of what to do next; Lee got over it first, booting the acrobat in the gut and sending her back through the doorframe.

Returning to the chase, the scarred vagrant pursued the Dai Lee agents up to the roof. When he got there, Lee found the three Dai Lee agents there; they seemed unsure of what to do next. Slipping the knife out of his right boot, the firebender rushed the three distracted earthbenders. One of the Dai Lee agents tried to fire one of his stone gloves at the charging enemy.

Lee was easily able to dodge the projectile. Skirting around the agent's follow up attack, the firebender managed to draw the razor sharp blade across the man's Adam's Apple; he went down trying to stem the spray of blood coming from his neck.

Before the first body even had a chance to hit the ground, Lee had already flipped the blade over in his hand and hurled it at one of the other Dai Lee agents. The blade made a whizzing sound as it rolled end over end through the air before burying itself into the unaware agent's temple. He advanced slowly upon the last surviving Dai Lee agent, the one who had his filthy hands around Jin's collar, holding her near the edge.

"Come any closer and your bitch goes over the side," the agent threatened.

Lee could feel his rage boiling inside his belly; the same monster that told him to burn Long Feng to ash was demanding that he take this fool apart; watch his skin boil; listen to his fat sizzle under his flames.

"You're not going to do shit," the firebender said darkly. He slowed his pace, but kept advancing.

"You're not going to do shit because she's the only leverage you've got. You know that she's the only thing that's kept me from doing to you what I did to your friends."

The Dai Lee agent looked calm on the outside, but Lee could see the terror seething beneath his skin. The other man was afraid of him; he knew that he didn't stand a chance.

"Without any earth to bend, you guys are nothing but food. Give me the girl and you can walk away."

Lee stretched out his hand, not asking but demanding that the nameless agent let the girl go. The agent was hesitant at first, weighing his options in his mind. Lee took a menacing step forward; his patience was quickly reaching it's limits. He wanted Jin in his arms and he wanted her NOW. The displeasure must have shown on the firebender's face and scared the agent. He released the girl and pushed her towards the scarred vagrant.

Jin wabbled unsteadily for a moment but took a few hesitant steps towards her rescuer. Lee felt his rage evaporate. She wasn't in danger anymore.

It was almost over.

She was just a few feet away from him; she was almost close enough to touch. He was about to reach out and take her into his arms when he saw her features change; the expression of breathless relief she wore transformed into stupefied horror.

Lee had maybe half a second to realize his mistake; half a second wasn't nearly enough time to save his arm. He felt a pair of quick strikes to this arm and then….nothing.

'_Ty Lee,_' he thought with dread.

It was as if the entire limb and been severed. He spun and tried to strike at the phantom attacker, but swatted at nothing but air. Another series of strikes; his other arm went dead.

"LEE, RUN! JUST RUN!"

Jin was screaming, near hysterical. Lee tried desperately to put some distance between himself and the acrobat. As he ran towards the edge of the building, the scarred vagrant felt his ankles suddenly stop working. He pitched forward onto his face, smacking his head on the wooden surface of the roof. He tasted the blood filling up his mouth. He had just enough time to look down at his ankles and see the pair of stone gloves wrapped around his ankles before Ty Lee was on him, sending a series of hits along his spine.

He felt his whole body go dead; violent panic assaulted his brain. He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe it. She'd caught him. He was done; finished. Azula would get him. OH SWEET AGNI, AZULA WAS GOING TO GET HER HANDS ON HIM!!!

He couldn't breathe, he couldn't focus. If he had been able to work his jaw, he would have bitten his own tongue off- anything was better than letting his sister take him apart. How the hell had Ty Lee been able to sneak up on him? Preoccupied as he was, he still should have heard her coming through door to the roof. How could he be so stupid? She was _Ty_ _Lee_; she didn't need to come through the door. Scaling the side of a building would be no problem for her.

It was over. It was over. It was….

"GET AWAY FROM HIM."

'_Oh no…_'

Jin. That was Jin's voice; that stupid bitch! Didn't she understand that they didn't want her? That they were just after his head and couldn't care less about what she did? Didn't she get that she was free and that she shouldn't care about what happened to him?

He strained to move his head, trying to see what was going on, but as hard as he tried he couldn't move his head. He wasn't able to see her, but he could hear her. He heard her curse; he heard her struggle; and then he heard her scream.

And then he heard that scream fade away to nothing. An eerie hush fell over the roof before he heard the acrobat explode.

And he knew without seeing, that he had just heard the sound of his joy and his hope dying.

* * *

**SlimJames**: Well after all that drama and angst, it looks likes things are finally coming to a head. I really hope I built up enough dramatic tension in preparation for the Crossroads of Destiny. Just to give you some advanced warning, shit's about to get FUCKED UP!


	21. Chapter 21

_There's no need to fear, SlimJames is here! And I've brought two new chapters!_

_I'm sorry that it took this long for me to update, but I've had a hard time wrapping this story up. I'll be frank, I suck at endings and I've just continued to write and write and write because I wanted to tie up all of the loose ends that needed to be tied up for Book II; before I realized it, the chapter that I was writing was over 11,000 words long- waaay to long for an individual chapter so I broke it up. I'm still trying to get the ending straight, but just so you know, Chapter 23 will definitely be the LAST chapter... _

Chapter 21

Mai was mature enough to admit to herself that she had a habit of complaining about things. They were usually just snarky comments about her own feelings of boredom and her wishes for something interesting to happen and break the tedium that was everyday life. But toady? Today, she found nothing that she could complain about.

After all of this time spent traveling, the Princess of Fire had finally delivered on her promise to give Mai her long awaited good time. Stalking through the grand halls of the royal palace on her way back to the throne room- which Azula had, in her typical fashion, made into the coup's center of operations- the knife mistress reflected on how much fun she was having. Mai scoffed wryly at her own thought; what would her parents think if they knew how much she was enjoying herself?

Twirling one of her stilettos between her fingers, the young woman noticed bits of dried blood on the back of her hand. Okay, so maybe there were _some_ downsides to staging a violent coup.

Scowling, the fastidious knife user did her best to pick the red droplets off of her armor. She hated getting blood on her; it was an affront to her sensibilities as a practitioner of _shuriken-jutsu_, the art of throwing knives.

She fought at a distance, and she was precise; when she aimed to kill someone, she put them down quickly and cleanly. No mess beyond the few droplets that would fall from a cleanly punctured eye or skull. Since what Mai practiced was, in essence, an assassin's art, getting blood on herself was quite a failing on her part.

"It was that old geezer's fault," the knife user muttered to herself.

There had been some random old guy hanging around with the palace guards that she had been sent to "neutralize". She had originally planned to leave him alone- he looked harmless enough over there in the corner with his game board- but he had surprised her. While she had taken care of most of the guards in short order, the old guy had avoided her initial barrage and almost got the drop on her. He'd gotten close enough to take a swipe at her with a big curved knife before she caught him with a stiletto to the jugular. Some of the spray from the wound must have gotten on her.

She had taken the old man's knife, of course. It was stuck into the waist sash of the pilfered Kyoshi warrior armor that she still wore; while not exactly her style, it was much too nice of a piece to just leave laying around.

Approaching the open doors of the throne room, Mai was surprised to hear the sound of angry voices. She sighed.

'_What's gone wrong now_,' the knife user thought.

That was a bit strange; Azula was never one to raise her voice, even when she was angry. Someone must have done something to really piss her off. Preparing to dodge any stray bolts of lightning that might come her way, Mai edged carefully around the doorway into the throne room. She was surprised to find that it wasn't Azula who was throwing a fit, but Ty Lee.

"Well this is new," the knife mistress remarked sardonically as she made her entrance.

"Mai, you're back I see," Azula said upon seeing that her gloomy companion had returned.

The knife mistress was probably imagining it, but it almost looked as if the Princess was relieved that someone had shown up to derail the acrobat's rant. Ty Lee, instead of greeting Mai with the usual squeal of glee and energetic glomping, instead addressed her with a curt nod. The knife user was a bit put off by this; the acrobat really looked angry about something.

"Okay, what did I miss while I was out," Mai asked.

"Oh nothing," Azula said airily, "just my reunification with a certain long lost relative of mine."

The knife mistress felt an odd stab of fear; excitement and apprehension go racing through her heart.

"You don't mean…"

The simultaneous nods of her two friends confirmed to her that they were indeed talking about Zuko- as if the Princess had any other long lost relatives she could have been talking about. Mai managed to keep most of the surprise from reaching her face, but it took some effort. The exiled prince, turning up in Ba Sing Se now of all times….

If she were the type of girl who was into all of that mushy pillow book nonsense, she might have thought this to be fate. Mai was about as far from mushy as any young woman could possibly be… still, the knife mistress had to admit that it was quite the coincidence.

"So, you've already brought him here then," Mai asked.

"Yep," Ty Lee said tersely. She jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "We've got him shackled up in the chamber behind the throne."

"I was actually waiting for you to get back before I went in to see him for myself," Azula said, lifting herself off of the throne of the Earth King and beckoning her two friends to follow her.

While Mai started climbing the steps towards the royal dais, Ty Lee stayed rooted in place, her eyes downcast and her expression unreadable.

"Hey, you coming," the knife mistress asked, concern seeping into her voice. Ty Lee was usually an open book when it came to her emotions; Mai hadn't even known that she even had the ability to don a blank expression. Her attitude was really starting to trouble the knife user.

"You guys can do whatever you want," the acrobat said dully, turning away from them. "I think he's seen enough of me."

Shrugging, Mai turned back and went back to following Azula, catching up with the Fire Princess at the edge of the grand dais.

"What's her problem," the dispassionate girl asked.

"Apparently my brother's '_acquisition'_ was a little bit rougher than we had initially expected," the princess replied.

"Rougher?"

Azula shrugged.

"I sent a Dai Lee fire team along with her for backup; Zuko killed all but one of them. And, amazingly enough, she says he did it all without firebending. I hear that it was quite brutal."

Mai felt a strange emotion that she couldn't place a name on pooling in the pit of her stomach.

"That sounds kind of out of character for your brother, but seeing some nameless Dai Lee getting killed doesn't explain why Ty Lee's acting the way she is."

After all, Mai thought to herself, she was one of Azula's friends. The squeamish didn't last long in the company of the Princess of the Fire Nation.

"Oh, but there's more to the story," the princess responded, sounding for all the world like a normal teenage girl that had a particularly juicy piece of gossip that she wanted to share with a friend.

Reaching a door hidden behind a long tapestry along the back wall of chamber, Azula pressed a panel hidden into the woodwork. Mai lifted an eyebrow in curiosity as a section of the wall slid backwards. Azula went through the passage first, the knife user at her heels.

"So you said there was more. What else is there?"

The princess smirked.

"Well," Azula drew out the single syllable for all that it was worth.

"As the story goes, Ty Lee and her team found my prudish older brother in mid-coitus with some common trollop."

Azula paused briefly; Mai could feel the princess's eyes checking her face for any cracks in the dispassionate mask the knife user wore. A single, slightly quirked eyebrow was all that she saw; Azula rolled her eyes. After a few more steps, the two girls stopped outside of a heavily barred doorway.

"Anyway, while Ty Lee and my brother fought, the Dai Lee with her decided to take the girl hostage and to make a long story short three or four agents died and the last one ended up on the roof with a very upset Zuzu. Ty Lee managed to bring him down, but the girl tried to help or something and got tossed off of the roof for her troubles. Our friend is under the impression that the Dai Lee agent used _excessive_ _force_."

Going by the tone of her voice, Mai felt that it was safe to assume that Azula had found the story of her brother's capture as well as Ty Lee's compassion for the dead "trollop" to be quite amusing. Though they were friends, and though she was used to it by now, the knife mistress couldn't help feeling a little put off by the Princess' cold-heartedness.

Mai didn't particularly care that some slut- er, girl, that Zuko had shacked up with took a header off of a tall building; still, the poor bitch took a header off of a _tall building_. Azula could at least pretend that she had a regard for human life.

"Well, are you ready to go in?"

Mai snapped out of her own head long enough to realize that Azula was standing with her hand poised to pull open the door. The knife user suddenly felt a nervous sweat sprouting on her brow, and her heart was suddenly constricted with a strange and alien sense of anxiety. All of a sudden, she really didn't feel like looking behind that door; she didn't really want to see him.

She didn't want to know…

"Open it up already."

The words came out of her throat, emotionless and firm.

* * *

Lee's whole universe was immersed in darkness; it wasn't just due to the scratchy cloth sack that had been thrown over his head. The blackness was everything; even the rage that he had held onto for so many years, the thing that fueled the fire that he was master of, was gone. The familiar warm feeling that lived inside of his chest, the warmth of his firebender soul; the one thing that had never left him before was gone.

Just…. gone.

Everything was gone. He was just a husk; wasted and hollow without even his spark left to him. He didn't even have the strength to be angry anymore. Now all he felt was an awful, raw pain that ran through his whole body. He had lost.

The scarred young man couldn't even straighten himself up. He was shackled securely to the floor so that he was forced to remain in a kneeling position with his arms lashed together behind his back. His neck and arms were done up in such a way that if he tried to move his arms too much, he would be choked by the collar around his neck.

Tears began flowing freely from his unscarred eye and strangled sobs burst from the scarred youth's throat. Lee's entire body shuddered uncontrollably with tremors; his chest heaved as his lungs struggled to take in more air. This was just pitiful; he shouldn't be like this! He had had a plan; he was going to leave, go back to the badlands with Jin and disappear. He wasn't supposed to be here, blindfolded on a cold stone floor and crying his eyes out like a child.

To the prince that he was, to the criminal that he was, weeping openly was a disgrace; his pride demanded that he stay strong and defiant. But how much good was his pride going to do him now? He had lost. It was all over for him.

In the midst of his anguish, Lee heard the metallic scrape of the door to his prison being pushed open. It was probably his sister; though it really didn't matter who it was that came to view the humbled royal, Lee managed to stop himself from sobbing so uncontrollably. He apparently still had enough pride left in him to manage that.

Outside of the sack covering his head, he dimly heard the thumps of approaching footsteps.

'_Tap,Tap,Tap…_'

He felt the presence of someone standing in front of where he kneeled, casting their shadow down over him. Lee felt a hand grab hold of the sack over his head and yank it away and suddenly the dry, burlap flavored air of the bag was replaced by the moist and earthy atmosphere of whatever dungeon he was in now. The scarred firebender kept his eyes fixed on the floor, letting his hair shield his face from view; he knew who was standing over him, he didn't need to look at _her_.

"I honestly thought you were dead."

A terrible dread filled Lee's body when he heard the smug voice of the Princess of the Fire Nation. He kept his eyes on the floor; the silence stretched past the point of awkwardness.

"You've been away for so long brother; you must have missed so much. Tell me, did you come to Ba Sing Se on some insane hope of capturing the avatar, single-handed?"

Silence again. He knew what she wanted him to do; she wanted him to get angry like he always did and shout back at her in defiance so that she could pick his words apart. Make a fool out of him. Well that was too bad for her; she'd killed all of the rebelliousness and defiance he'd had in his soul. She wouldn't be getting any fun out of him.

Azula sighed, looking down at the person kowtowing on the floor in annoyance. Was this really her Zuzu? The princess stepped forward and slowly began walking in a circle around Zuko. Mai, who had retreated to a corner of the room, was silently observing her friend stalk her way around her older brother. The knife wielder knew without being told that this was- for the moment at least- a family affair; Azula would let her know when it was her turn.

On the floor, Lee kept his eyes towards the floor. At the edge of his vision he could barely perceive _her_ feet as she slinked around him.

'_That's so like her,_' the scarred firebender mused to himself; ever the predator. Trying to unnerve him wasn't going to do her any good though; Azula had already taken him down to the lowest point that she could bring him.

"Come now, Zuko," the princess said lightly.

Stopping behind her brother, Azula leaned down so that her mouth was next to his ear and whispered, "…Don't you have any kind words to say to your long lost sister?"

Lee shrank away from the sound of Azula's voice, retreating from her presence like a whipped dog; a barely audible, animalistic whimper creeped from the kneeling captive's throat. The Princess of the Fire Nation drew back from her brother, a scowl of revulsion on her face.

Azula's piercing golden eyes bore into the trembling back of the person who was supposed to be her brother. Zuko, son of the Fire Lord and a former crown prince was cowering at her feet like some… some lowly animal. This was truly unthinkable! As she looked down on his back, the seconds drifted on like minutes.

'_What's wrong with him? Why doesn't he say something?'_

Azula found that the longer that she looked at Zuko, the more annoyed she got. If this was her brother, then he should have been struggling against the chains, trying to get at her. Or he should have been shouting, demanding to be released and claiming that she had no right to keep him imprisoned like this. At the very least he should have been sitting up straight and facing her down like the royalty that he was, not cowering like some common pickpocket.

Her annoyance finally bubbling over into genuine frustration, the princess grabbed the prince roughly by his hair and yanked his head back so that he would be forced to look her in the face. Azula's golden eyes sought out their counterparts, but she found herself denied once again. Truly unfathomable; he couldn't even look her in the eyes.

Fed up, the Fire Princess released the back of the prisoner's head. She stood up, wiping her hands on her armor as if she were trying to get something disgusting off of her hands; and in a sense, she was. For as long as she could remember, Azula had viewed her elder brother with contempt; he was a weakling and a failure at everything he did.

But this was the first time that she had ever felt genuine disgust for Zuko.

Lee could see their revulsion in their faces; both of them were shocked at how pathetic he had become. Azula; the scorn in her eyes cold enough to chill blood. Mai; the caustic pity laying just underneath the impassive mask on her face.

They didn't stay with him for much longer. Azula stepped forward and placed the bag back over her brother's head.

"I can't even stand the sight of you anymore."

Through the sack Lee heard the Fire Princess bark an order to one of her cronies, ordering that he be taken away and put somewhere far away from her. He felt them pick his limp body up off of the floor. He felt them drag him somewhere. He felt them loosen his restraints. He heard the sound of a heavy door opening and felt as rough hands through him onto an unforgiving stone floor.

Nobody bothered taking the sack off of his head.

It didn't matter; he was drained, he had nothing left. He was just so damn tired; tired by everything.

Lee-or was he Zuko? - closed his eyes. He just wanted to rest…

* * *

Sokka was finding that running reconnaissance inside of the palace was actually much easier than he had anticipated. While sneaking back into the Forbidden City, the young warrior had been hyper-aware of his surroundings, taking furtive glances around every corner and keeping to the shadows as much as possible. After a short while, however, he began to suspect that he was being overly cautious.

The palace was deserted; that disturbed him more than anything he had seen all day, and that was saying something.

The royal palace was large enough to be considered a small city unto itself. Thousands of servants and bureaucrats and ministers and soldiers regularly resided at the palace; most of the time you couldn't go five feet without bumping into somebody. But now?

There was nothing- nobody was organizing a defense and people nobody was fleeing in terror trying to get away from the treasonous Dai Lee. The fact that there was nobody around anywhere caused several horrifying thoughts to spring into the Water Tribe warrior's head.

Where was everybody? Could they all be dead?

Looking around a corner, Sokka scanned a hallway. Seeing it empty, just like all of the other ones he had come across so far, the young warrior stepped cautiously into the hallway and strode quickly down to where he knew another guard station was located. Sticking his head inside the room, Sokka cursed; he had walked into yet another massacre scene. That made four; he was getting used to seeing rooms full of broken and twisted bodies.

Four guard stations where all of the palace guards had been killed. The Water Tribe warrior put his face in his hands and struggled against the urge to scream in frustration and anger. Well, at least he had figured out one part of the amazing flaming psycho's plan; murder all of the Earth King's guards and generals. Eliminate the people who are most likely to fight back and your coup has got to contend with is a bunch of finance ministers and chambermaids.

He had to hand it to her; the Fire Princess' plan was simple, but it got the job done well enough. Stepping inside of the room, Sokka found a chair that was- mostly- free of human fluids and sat down; he needed to think.

'_What do I know?'_

Well, for starters the Council of Five was dead. The supreme military commanders of the Earth Kingdom armed forces had been neutralized so, in effect, every Earth Kingdom army from the plains of Ba Sing Se to the west coast had been cut off from their central hub of command and has lost the ability to coordinate with one another on a large scale. That meant that if things stayed as they were, he could kiss his plans for an invasion of the Fire Nation a bitter goodbye.

Then there was the situation with the palace guards; if the slaughter box that he was sitting in was any indication, Azula had set the Dai Lee to work killing all of the palace guards that they could find. There were thousands of palace guards and, to his knowledge, only a few hundred Dai Lee. There should be at least a few pockets of resistance to the coup somewhere in the palace.

Then again, the Dai Lee were elite earthbenders. A group of them could bring down an entire wing of the palace in a few seconds, so there was a chance that they really had managed to kill all of the palace guards. Thinking of the guards made him think of Soeharto. Sokka grimaced at the thought of the old detective being caught up in a Dai Lee ambush; the more that he sat here examining the situation, the direr it started to look.

'_No, no! I've got to think positive!_'

Taking his mind off of the big picture for a moment, the Water Tribe warrior focused instead on the thing that had _really_ been at the forefront of his mind since he had stepped back into the palace.

Katara.

The very first thing that he should be focusing on is rescuing his sister. Back in the Council of Five's chamber, Azula had mentioned keeping Katara as a hostage, which meant that the princess had no plans to kill his sister.

'_Katara has to be locked away somewhere in the palace. The question is, where?'_

The most logical place to hold a prisoner, Sokka reasoned, was in a dungeon and he knew where those were located. However, there was no guarantee that Katara was being kept in the dungeons; the palace was a very big place and it was bound to have a number of rooms that could fit the bill of makeshift dungeon. Plus, when you had earthbenders on your side, any place with stone and dirt could be converted into a prison.

The Water Tribe warrior sighed in frustration. When he looked at the situation from all of the angles, one fact was abundantly clear; he couldn't do anything by himself. Though he desperately wanted to rush to his sister's aid, he realized that his best course of action would be to go back to the guest house, grab Toph and wait for Aang and Appa to return from Chameleon Bay.

'_With that avatar spiritual tracking-thingy, we should be able to locate Katara, Soeharto and the Earth King pretty quickly; once that's done, then we can stop this coup._'

Sokka rose from his seat and tiptoed over bodies to get back to the door; he was far from happy about the situation, but at least he had formulated the beginnings of a plan on how to fix things. The young warrior always felt better when he had a plan.

Stepping out into the still deserted hallway, Sokka started heading quickly for the exit, his nimble mind envisioning different scenarios and devising strategies. The Psycho and her minions had managed to hurt them, no doubt about that. But with the avatar on their side, they could still win the day.

Who knows, with a little luck they could-

"HEY YOU! KID WITH THE PONYTAIL, STOP RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!!"

'_Annnnnnnddd, there goes my luck._'

Sokka froze and quickly glanced over his shoulder, hoping against hope that it wasn't who he thought it was standing behind him. Unfortunately, it was exactly who he thought it was; a pair of grim faced Dai Lee agents were standing at the other end of the hall giving him dirty looks.

Without wasting another second, the Water Tribe warrior took off running in the opposite direction.

"HEY STOP," he heard one of them shout.

"NO," Sokka shouted back as he rounded a corner and made a mad sprint down another hallway.

Could this day possibly get any worse?

* * *

Far up above the clouds, the young man who served as the bridge between the Mortal and the Spirit World watched as the giant golden orb that brought light and warmth to the world finally dipped underneath the horizon. Seeing the enormous glowing mass of the sun recede under the curve of the earth always made Aang feel small; sometimes he enjoyed the feeling of being small. As the avatar- for better or for worse- people tended to regard him as the most powerful being on the planet; it was just comforting to know that there were things in this world that were greater than himself.

It helped him put things in perspective. Before the might of nature, he was no greater than any other person.

"Let's head down buddy."

As the world above the sea of clouds descended into darkness, Aang gripped the Appa's reigns and guided the sky bison into a gentle descent. Coming out of the cloud, the young avatar looked down at the ground, trying to get his bearings. He could see the lights of Ba Sing Se in the distance, the massive city shining like a gigantic signal light.

"There it is; we're almost home Appa," the airbender said, giving his steed an affectionate pat on his shaggy head. The bison yawned deeply in response.

"Don't worry; you'll be able to rest soon."

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than Aang had to bite back a yawn of his own. The sooner that they got back, the sooner that they could _both_ rest; it was a fairly long flight from Ba Sing Se to Chameleon Bay and he had had hardly any time to rest in between going there and coming back. Still, it had been nice finally getting to meet Hakoda of the Water Tribe. The father of Sokka and Katara had been a bit disappointed that his children hadn't been able to come to see him, but had been happy to receive the messages that the siblings had asked Aang to deliver to him.

The young avatar hoped that he had made a good impression on the leader of the Southern Water Tribe; Hakoda had seemed like a good person and he spoke highly of both of his children. Looking down towards the ground once again to make sure that Appa and he hadn't drifted off course, Aang was surprised to spot movement in the darkness.

Coaxing Appa to increase his speed and go lower, the airbender peered into the darkness, straining his eyes to get a view of what was going on. What he was seeing, Aang realized with a start, was a Fire Nation army on the move towards Ba Sing Se.

It was no secret that the Fire Nation army kept a presence in close proximity to Ba Sing Se- they had since the Dragon of the West almost breached the walls of the city years ago. Aang remembered flying over their encampment while on his way to Chameleon Bay, but they had been dug in miles away from the city. At the rate the Fire Nation army was moving, they would be at the outer wall within the hour.

'_Why are they moving now?'_

The airbender felt both worried and perplexed by what he saw. From his vantage point, Aang could not make out any siege equipment or an elaborate mechanical monstrosity like that giant drill Azula had used to try and penetrate the walls the first time. And if they didn't have anything that could get through the walls, then what was the point of marching on the city?

Grave misgivings bubbled up from the airbender's chest; something told him that he should probably hurry back to city. Whipping the reigns, Aang directed Appa to fly faster. The wind whipped by his head as the sky bison picked up speed. Before long the avatar was cruising over the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se and guiding Appa to land next to their guest house. All of the lights were out and the place looked deserted.

Grabbing his staff, Aang hopped off of the bison's shaggy head and landed on the ground with a gentle thump. Sharpening his Avatar Sense, the airbender reached out with his spirit; the only human presence that he sensed in the vicinity was coming from inside the house, a familiar aura that he instantly recognized as belonging to Toph.

Rushing up the stairs and into the front door the young avatar was greeted by the sight of the agitated earthbender pacing back and forth in the front room.

"Aang," Toph exclaimed, sensing the airbender's entrance before the young man even had a chance to announce it.

"We've got a situation."

"What happened," Aang asked, already worried by the urgency in her voice.

It took less than a minute for Toph to lay out the situation for him.

"Sokka was supposed to be back by now," Toph said.

"I've got no idea what's happened to him. What are we gonna do?"

"We've got to hurry up stop Azula before it's too late," the avatar declared.

"The first thing we'll have to do is find our friends; once we get to the royal palace I can use my Avatar Sense to locate them in no time. After we get everybody together, we can put a stop to all of this."

He turned on his heel and almost bolted out of the door before he stopped and turned back around.

"Wait, are you able to fight? I mean, I'm sorry to ask this but you seem to be limping pretty badly. It might be safer for you to stay here."

Toph frowned and punched the airbender in the shoulder, _hard_.

"Don't even think about keeping me out of this arrow boy! I may be a gimp right now but that just means I'm _twice_ as good as every other earthbender instead of ten times as good."

Despite the gravity of their situation, Aang couldn't help but smile at the tiny earthbender's confidence. He felt his spirits lifting.

"All right; if you're coming along, then we'll fly on Appa to the palace and get the drop on Azula. One way or another, this is going to end tonight."

Toph cracked her knuckles in anticipation.

"That bitch is never gonna' know what hit her."

* * *


	22. Chapter 22

_It's time to get supernatural! Oh, and violent! HOORAY FOR VIOLENCE!!!_

Chapter 22

_The blue dragon twisted it's serpentine body through the dark air, gliding through the atmosphere with all of the natural ease of an eel through ocean water. A scarred eye watched as the beast's lithe body continued to twist around and around his body; the deep blue scales were close. Almost close enough to touch. _

_Almost, but not quite. Before the observer's eyes the great dragon began to shrink until, in the end, it was no larger than one of the garden serpents that used to live in his mother's lydranna bushes. Finishing it's transformation, the tiny creature settled itself onto Lee's shoulders and slowly curled itself around his neck. _

"_What are you just sitting here for?"_

_The tiny blue dragon spoke in Jin's voice. An incredible wave of sadness overcame him. _

"_I lost."_

"_You lost? You lost what?"_

"_Everything. There's no point in fighting anymore. I'm tired of fighting; I just want to rest."_

_She giggled, a sound of unbridled mirth that cut through his depression and made him sit up; he didn't see how anyone could be laughing in a time like this._

"_Aww, you've had a rough day huh lover," the creature with Jin's voice whispered in his ear, her serpentine tongue flicking inside of his earlobe._

"_Y'know, this probably isn't the best time to be brooding in the dark. Shouldn't you, I don't know, thinking of a way to escape? Seriously Lee, you're going to die if you don't do something."_

"_What's the point," the scarred young man said dispassionately._

_The tiny dragon uncoiled itself from around his neck and slithered away into the darkness. He looked down at the reptile; Jin had been his reason for remaining. But she was gone now…_

_He could feel tears beginning to well up behind his eyes._

"_I couldn't do anything to help you. In the end, when it counted, I was useless. I am so sorry Jin."_

_He felt a pair of soft hands envelop him from behind. Lee could feel- and at the same time, not feel- the familiar contours of Jin's body pressed up against his back. He leaned back into her, just enjoying being able to take in her presence, taking in her scent._

"_Don't be," the wraith said tenderly. _

"_You gave a burned out and bitter young whore the first real happiness she had in her whole life. Yeah, I died, but I died knowing somebody loved me- and trust me, that's worth something." _

"_But that's just it," the scarred young man said bitterly, "you did die."_

_He laughed mirthlessly, massaging his temples with his fingers._

"_What does it matter if Azula kills me or not; you were the only thing I had that made things better…"_

"_Ugh! When the fuck did you turn into such a whiny little pussy! What, are you on the rag or something?"_

"_What was that," Lee snapped, his infamous temper resurfacing out of surprise at Jin's statement. _

"_You heard me," she snapped back. "Just giving up and letting yourself be killed? That's a loser's move and I never thought that you were a loser. You really think dying is going to make up for letting me die?"_

_Lee winced; why did everything in his life have to be so difficult? He was so confused- he didn't want to fight anymore but Jin was there demanding that he do just that. _

"_So what should I do then?"_

_He was desperate. He had never been good at figuring out what to do for himself- he had always depended on others. His mother; his uncle; Xiao Feng and Jiji; Jet; he had always deferred to someone else who could point him in the right direction. He was confused. He just wanted to know what he should do! _

"_You already know what to do," Jin replied. Her tone had changed; it sounded harsher, darker than he had ever heard her speak before. _

"_Stop feeling sorry for yourself and kill all of those bastards that did this to you!"_

_Her words were beyond seductive; they dripped into his brain and stuck there like sweet honey into an oven roll. It was so simple, the answer to all of his questions and uncertainty._

"_They did this to me," Lee whispered to himself. _

"_That's right," the Jin wraith whispered into his ear. _

"_Your father, your sister, you'll never know peace as long as they're still around. They'll hunt you to the ends of the earth. The only way you're ever going to be free…"_

"_NO!"_

_That voice! The scarred young man shot up to his feet, out of the embrace of the Jin wraith had enveloped him in. _

"_Uncle?"_

_Lee looked into the darkness, not really believing who he was seeing. It was Iroh and he was just… there; as if he had just arisen from out of the nothingness. The old man looked exactly like he had in his nephew's better memories; he wasn't pale and sweating, his body wracked with fever and infection from Azula's lightning blast like the last time Lee had actually _seen_ him. But then, upon closer inspection, the young firebender noticed that one thing was off about Iroh. _

_The smile that habitually graced the old man's features was gone- his uncle looked grim._

"_Zuko, get away from her," she said sharply. The scarred youth started in surprise, his confusion evident on his face. _

"_That girl- that creature- is not who it makes itself out to be!"_

_Lee turned on the Jin wraith, but she wasn't looking at him. Her eyes were focused on Iroh and she looked far from happy at the Dragon of the West's intrusion. _

"_And here I thought I had gotten rid of you. You're worse than hemorrhoids old man."_

_Lee observed the scene in uneasy silence; he had no idea what was going on. Why was his uncle here? And why did he tell him to get away from Jin?_

"_There is nowhere in this world that you can go that I will not follow," the Dragon of the West exclaimed fiercely. _

"_I will not allow you to corrupt my nephew with your twisted words devil!" _

"_I'm twisted," the Jin wraith said indignantly. "I'm not the one who sent your precious nephew down the bloody path he's had to walk; seems to me I'm the only one that's trying to help him get through it."_

_She walked towards the scarred young man and attempted to take his hand. Lee snatched his hand away from her grasp and backed away. _

"_Lee, what are you…"_

"_If you're not her, then don't look like her," the young man ground out through clenched teeth. His rage was evident on his face and in his voice. _

_The false Jin seemed to take the hint that she had better not press her luck. Lifting her hands in a placating gesture, the Jin wraith quickly melted into the darkness right before his eyes. _

"_Prince Zuko…"_

_It took the young man a moment longer than it should have to react. It had been so long since he had been addressed in such a way that he didn't even realize at first that his uncle was even talking to him. Lee turned on the old man slowly, not making any move to approach him lest he proved to be another deception._

"_I cannot tell you how good it is to see you, my nephew." _

"_What are you doing here," Lee said flatly, eyeing the person that was supposed to be his uncle with suspicion. _

"_I have come because you needed- because you need me to be here. You have reached a pivotal point in your young life Price Zuko; from this moment onwards your destiny, as well as the destiny of the entire world, sits upon a knife's edge. I am here to guide you towards the correct choice."_

_A derisive snort met Iroh's statement. _

"_There he goes talking about destiny again." _

_Lee turned towards the new voice; the thing that his uncle had called a "devil" had apparently returned in the guise of his old prison mentor- Jiji. The Jiji wraith wore the convict's trademark sneer upon his lips, and Lee could see the familiar cold scorn in his eyes as he stared down the Dragon of the West. _

"_Since you're so clued in to the workings of the universe, then let me ask you; was it all part of destiny's higher plan for the kid to everyone he's ever cared about? Was he destined to end up like this? Alone and waiting to die?"_

_Ignoring the wraith's words, Iroh moved towards his nephew and clutched him by his shoulders, tearing the young man's eyes away from Jiji and back onto him. _

"_Zuko, I know what you have been through and I am sorry for all of the suffering that you have had to go through in the past. I am sorry that I was not there to help guide you through all of it but if you are to ever have a future, then you must move on from your past."_

"_Move on from the past," the scarred young intoned, the slightest edge of anger in his voice. _

"_What do you think I've been trying to do since you died Uncle? I abandoned my nation, I abandoned my duty, my honor, my titles; I even abandoned my name! I've already let go!"_

_The young man's voice rose as he spoke, so that by the end of his statement he was screaming at the top of his lungs and trying to pull himself out of Iroh's grasp. The Dragon of the West, however, kept a viselike grip on his nephew, keeping him in place. _

"_No Zuko, you have allowed this world to scar you and twist you into something cruel and ugly. Instead of letting go and moving past the painful events that have happened, you chose to run away and refused to face the world. You are more full of anger and hatred now than you have ever been in your life. Do you understand? You are in danger of losing your true self forever!"_

_Iroh stopped and took a breath, as if winded, before starting again. His voice was choked with emotion._

"_I know that you have chosen to do horrible things in order to survive, but I assure you that you are not beyond redemption. There is still time for you to set things right."_

"_And who are you to judge what he's done or what he's become, huh," the Jiji wraith interjected, forcefully shoving nephew and uncle apart._

"_He talks about _'making things right'_… as if you've got something to apologize for. You did what you had to do; plain and simple."_

"_Stand away fiend! This has nothing to do with you," Iroh shouted in fury. _

"_No, I think it has a lot to do with me," the Jiji wraith replied sharply before turning on Lee, who was watching the exchange between the two with naked suspicion. _

"_Wise up junior; he just wants to feed you more delusions. The old man doesn't care about your redemption; he just wants you to go out and do what he no longer can." _

_Jiji spat at the space in between the old general's feet. _

"_What's your agenda you old shit? What do you want."_

_The scarred firebender wasn't sure what to make of this situation. Lee had no idea if he was having a dream, or had finally been pushed over the edge and was hallucinating. He was especially unsure if the person that looked like his uncle was really Iroh. While it certainly looked and sounded like the Dragon of the West, Lee wasn't about to trust his eyes and ears to tell him the truth. After all, he had been convinced that the thing that was portraying Jiji was Jin just a few minutes ago._

"_I could ask the same of you," Iroh snapped back. _

"_I do not know what your intentions are for my nephew, but I will not allow you to pervert his destiny for whatever twisted aims you intend for him!"_

"_There he goes, throwing that d-word around again," the Jiji wraith replied sardonically. He winked conspiratorially at the scarred vagrant before his features shifted and the grizzled convict that he knew morphed into the dusky and rawboned face of a dead Freedom Fighter._

"_Lee," Jet said, "do you really want to waste more of your life chasing after some abstract _'destiny'_ that somebody else says you're _supposed_ to fulfill?"_

_The answer to that question was obvious; it was the very last thing that he wanted to do. He had abandoned his so-called destiny- whatever that was supposed to mean- over two years ago. As soon as Lee had set foot in Jade Passage, he had resolved that he would never chase another pipe dream. _

"_Don't listen to him Prince Zuko; you are not meant to be living like an animal. Your spirit is still noble; your heart can still love and you know the difference between right and wrong." _

"_This abomination," he inclined his head towards the Jet wraith, "would have you believe that there is no hope and force you down a path which only leads to destruction."_

"_Whoa, whoa, whoa," Jet said indignantly. _

"_I'm not the one who's trying to force him into anything. Unlike you, I'm not trying to poke and prod and guilt him into doing what I want. You get that don't you Lee? You notice how this whole time, all I've done is ask you questions, like an equal." _

_The Jet wraith turned a scornful eye towards the old general. _

"_I haven't been like him; he treats you like some idiotic, insecure child. Telling you what to do, all the while disguising his orders like helpful advice. He hasn't got any idea what you've been through, so what right does he have to tell you what to do?"_

"_Enough," Iroh exclaimed, fed up with the wraith's bothersome interference. _

"_Zuko knows that I have never tried to impose my will upon him. And I do know about all that he has suffered; even after death I have never left his side. My spirit has walked the same steps and crossed the same mountains as my nephew and…"_

"_Wait, what did you just say," the scarred firebender said tonelessly, interrupting the exchange between his uncle and the wraith. _

"_If your this spirit that's been following me all this time, why haven't you come to me before?"_

_Iroh sighed and tried to speak. _

"_You must try and understand Zuko…it was not the right time. You were not ready to receive me."_

"_Why haven't you come to me before," the young firebender repeated frantically, his rage building with every passing second. He didn't want to hear excuses; he wanted a reason why he had been left all alone! _

"_If you're this spirit that can just come to me whenever you want, then why the hell haven't you shown yourself sooner, huh!? You show up now, but what about all of those other times that I was alone or needed your wise advice? What about all those times I prayed and cried out to you? Were you listening then! You didn't do a damn thing; you abandoned me just like your brother did." _

"_Zuko, please, you must understand…"_

"_That IS NOT MY NAME," the young firebender roared, all of his hatred and anger and resentment finally spilling out. _

"_DON'T YOU EVER CALL ME THAT AGAIN!!"_

_The scarred firebender yelled until his throat ran raw; he was just so furious! He wished he still had his blades; he wanted the visceral satisfaction of ripping a living creature apart. He wanted to it so bad that it __**hurt**__._ _Iroh tried to approach his nephew, but the furious young man flailed out wildly at the Dragon of the West. Lee needed to get away… go somewhere, be alone. _

"_No, not alone," the Jet wraith's voice rang inside of his head. _

"_You've tried running before and it failed. They still got you; you changed your name, changed your history, and they still got you. You know what you have to do now, don't you?"_

'I know what to do…'

_He knew what to do; even if he escaped, he wouldn't be free. Now that she knew he was alive, Azula would hunt him to the ends of the earth; he was a loose end and his sister didn't leave loose ends. He would be prey, waiting on that inevitable day when the hunter finally caught up with him and took his hide. But he wouldn't wait around for them to get him anymore; he would take the war to them._

_He knew what to do. _

"_I'll get them all back…"_

_Make them pay…_

"_Make them burn…"_

* * *

Lee snapped out of unconsciousness with a start; his first few seconds were filled with panic until he remembered that a sack had been placed over his head. Snatching the sack off of his head the scarred firebender looked around and saw that he was no longer in the black void where he had met his uncle and the… whatever it was. He had been thrown, predictably, in a dungeon. Hopping up to his feet, the scarred vagrant walked towards the door of his cell.

Besides the cell sitting right across the hall from him, Lee couldn't really see anything of the outside world. He strained his ears and listened carefully, but he couldn't make out the sounds of anyone in the hallway. It sounded like this stretch of dungeon- at least at the moment- was deserted. The firebender supposed that that made sense; Azula only had a limited number of subordinates and she probably wouldn't want to put them to use for something as nonessential as guarding prisoners.

He turned to examining his cell; it was bare and made entirely of metal. Clearly these things were designed to hold earthbenders, though it would do a good job of hemming in a firebender like him. So, what was he to do?

Lee slumped back down onto the floor, his earlier melancholy forgotten. He felt like a fool for wasting so much time feeling sorry for himself; had he been thinking he would have tried to take out the guards that had brought him down here in the first place. It was too late to do anything about that now though.

But what was he going to do? It had taken a miracle for him to escape from prison the first time, and it wasn't as if he could expect to be that lucky again.

"Katara are you in there?"

'_No, it can't be. I'm not that lucky…_'

He recognized that voice; it was the avatar. Dashing to his feet, the scarred vagrant had reached the door just as a loud crash reverberated up and down the hallway. Whatever was happening, it was going on further up the hallway; he couldn't see anything. He wasn't sure what was going on, and he didn't particularly care. But he was sure down to his bones that the avatar and his group were his ticket out of here.

"HEY! HEY AVATAR, DOWN HERE," he shouted at the top of his lungs.

They had to let him out of here, right? I mean, they wouldn't leave him locked up in here would they? That would violate their code of ethics or honor or whatnot, right? He had his doubts, but he forced them to the back of his mind.

The waterbender got to him first; the avatar and that blind chick close on her heels.

"Zuko," the young airbender squawked in disbelief.

"Um… hey," the scarred firebender replied, not entirely sure how to handle this situation now that he had finally got them down here.

"What are you doing in there," the airbender asked.

"I'm a prisoner. Look, I know how this sounds but you've got to let me out of here."

"No way," the waterbender snapped. "Let's just leave him here Aang, we can't trust him."

"Yo, quick question," Toph said, stepping in to the conversation and drawing all of the attention to herself.

"Who _is_ this guy?"

"This is Zuko," Katara said, "_Prince_ Zuko of the Fire Nation; the guy that used to chase us to the ends of the earth and tried to capture Aang on an almost weekly basis."

"Yeah, all of that is true and it's also beside the point," Lee snapped.

"Look, forget about what happened in the past; just let me out of here. You're going to need my help if you want to stop Azula and this coup."

"Why would we want to help you," Aang asked, still not entirely trusting their old adversary.

The scarred vagrant caught the uncertainty in the young avatar's voice; that meant he was considering springing him from his cage. Well, it wasn't much but it was a lot more promising than the cold refusal in the waterbender's voice. Lee decided now was the time to play his trump card.

"Because you owe me, that's why! Remember Lake Laogai? I was the guy in the mask; I helped you when you needed to get that damn bison, so open this fucking door!"

The avatar and the waterbender looked over at the blind girl. Her silent nod confirmed that the imprisoned young man was telling the truth.

"Stand away from the door," Toph said. "I'm going to pop it open."

Lee made sure that he was as far away from the door as possible. The firebender watched door and heard what sounded like stones grinding against each other. After around half a minute the heavy metal door fell inwards into the cell, slamming onto the floor. Stepping over the door, Lee stared quizzically at the tiny earthbender.

"How'd you do that; I thought earthbenders couldn't bend metal."

Toph scoffed. "Only the cell and the door are metal; the hallway's made of stone. All you've gotta do is jiggle the walls a little bit and those doors'll shake off their hinges."

"Now all we've got to do is find sleeveless guy," the earthbender stated.

"Way ahead of you," Aang replied.

Lee raised an eyebrow when he saw that the avatar's eyes were glowing. _That_ certainly was a interesting.

"I've got him!"

* * *

Sokka had had to beat a hasty retreat when he had been spotted by those Dai Lee agents. He must've run across this entire wing of the palace; he hadn't managed to shake them, but at least he had kept himself from getting captured. The warrior had managed to give them the slip long enough to hide himself away in one of the- eerily deserted- kitchens dotted around the palace. Unfortunately, the two Dai Lee agents that had been pursuing him had multiplied into an entire squad.

Peeking around the edge of the countertop, the Water Tribe warrior counted three pairs of fairly large feet standing about thirty feet away at the opposite end of the chamber.

Sokka was feeling very much like a Purple Pentapus at the moment; meaning, he was crouched down onto his belly and trying to stick himself to the floor. Sticking to the floor was proving to be surprisingly easy. It was pretty sticky to begin with. He edged away from edge of the countertop, dragging himself along the floor before climbing into a crouch, making sure that his head was still below the top of the counter. Sokka pulled his club from where it was slung at his side and gripped it tightly in his hand.

The Dai Lee agents seemed to not be in much of a hurry to find him; why should they be? They thought that they had him cornered, that it would only be a matter of time until they finally caught the slippery little Water Tribe intruder and clapped him in irons….or stone…. or whatever….

Inching to the other end of the counter, Sokka peaked around the edge again. One of the agents had moved to within ten feet of where he was hiding. Ducking back behind the counter, the Water Tribe warrior took a deep breath and began counting down.

'_Ten…nine…eight…seven…six…'_

Ten feet away was a bit too far; he needed to wait until the agent got closer.

'…_five…'_

They had trapped him in this kitchen, but they hadn't realized yet that they'd also trapped themselves.

'…_four…three…two…'_

This whole area was filled with ovens, stoves, shelves, sinks whose pipes ran under the floor, pots and pans hanging from racks bolted into the ceiling, grates in the floor for the runoff to drain through; and they were _all_ made of metal. Trying to earthbend around all of that would be a bitch, to say the least.

'…_one…'_

Jumping to his feet and flinging himself from behind the counter in one fluid motion, Sokka had exactly half a second to square himself up on the Dai Lee agent and realize that- contrary to his estimation- the large man hadn't gotten close enough for him to club over the head and was, in fact, a few feet farther away. The Water Tribe warrior and the Dai Lee agent locked eyes and for one horrifying second Sokka found himself frozen on the spot, unsure of what to do.

"He's over here!"

He saw the Dai Lee agent move and snapped into action, drawing back his arm and flinging his club at the bigger man's face. His club wasn't meant to be thrown, but at this distance it was close enough. The blunt stone weapon flipped end-over-end and smashed into the agent's face, crumpling the soft tissue and bone with a wet '_thwack'_.

Sokka didn't bother to watch the man topple, running and diving behind a nearby island of stoves as the two other Dai Lee agents reacted to the sound of their comrade having his face caved in. The Water Tribe warrior rolled up and on his feet and started running around to the edge of the kitchen and down an isle of stoves still filled with bubbling woks and saucepans.

The young warrior skidded to a stop as he saw one of the two remaining Dai Lee agents standing at the end of the aisle. Turning on his heel to run back the other way Sokka had to stop again as he saw the other agent had moved to cut him off.

"Oookay… not good…"

His enemy's earthbending was limited due to the metal pipes lying beneath the floor, but both of them were still bigger and stronger than he was. They could still beat him to death. The two agents started moving in on him at the same time; he had a split second to make a decision. Reacting quickly, Sokka rolled on his back across the still sizzling surface of an adjacent stove. The Water Tribe warrior bit down a scream as the hot iron surface seared his right shoulder and upper arm; finishing the roll and landing on his feet he took off towards where his club had landed.

However, the Dai Lee agents were also quick to react. Out of the corner of his eye Sokka could see one of them already backtracking towards the end of the aisle of stoves. The earthbender rounded the corner and cut Sokka off before the young warrior could get past him.

The young warrior had just enough time to exclaim…

"Shit!"

…before the Dai Lee agent launched one of his stone gauntlets at Sokka. The warrior managed to twist his body out of the way, avoiding the projectile more through luck than skill. The Dai Lee agent quickly switched stances and drew back his other fist to send the other glove at the off balance warrior; there was no way that Sokka was going to be able to avoid this one.

Instead of trying to dodge the attack, the Water Tribe warrior chose to go on the offensive. Grabbing the handle a wok that was sitting on the stove behind him, Sokka stepped forward and threw the boiling contents towards the face of the agent. The tall earthbender managed to raise an arm over his face so that the sizzling spray of grease and vegetables hit the thick cloth of his robe instead of his vulnerable flesh.

While the Dai Lee agent's vision was blocked Sokka rushed forward; just as the agent lowered his arm from in front of his face the young warrior reared back and slammed the iron wok into the side of the Dai Lee agents head. The agent's hat was sent spinning through the air and blood fountained out of the earthbender's head as the edge of the wok ripped a large cut across his forehead. The agent's eyes rolled backwards in his head and he stumbled, one arm flailing about weakly in a fruitless search to catch hold of something to steady himself.

Sokka didn't give him a chance to recover; he lofted the wok over his head and brought it smashing down on the crown of the stunned Dai Lee agent's head. The young warrior felt a rush of adrenaline shoot through his body as the iron pan in his hands made contact with the earthbender's head; a tremor of brutal satisfaction at the destruction of his enemy rattled his heart.

Sokka didn't have time to revel in his victory as he was bowled over by a sledgehammer blow to his side. As he fought to regain his breath Sokka turned on his attacker and was afforded an up close view of a stone encased fist heading straight for his face. The young warrior had enough presence of mind to set his jaw turn into the blow; the strike hit him with enough force to send him crashing to the floor. Though he had prepared himself for it, the punch still hurt like hell and rattled his brains inside of his skull; nothing felt broken, though.

Face planted on the floor, Sokka- trying to will the stars and bright colors out of his eyes spitting out the bitter copper-flavored blood that was starting to fill his mouth- wasn't prepared for the follow-up strike from the earthbender. The Dai Lee agent grabbed him by his collar, yanked him onto his back and backhanded the Water Tribe warrior hard across his opposite cheek. Sokka felt as his bottom lip split open.

The agent had got him good; too good. The earthbender struck him too hard- he lost his grip on the young warrior's collar and Sokka dropped to the floor again. Through a blurry eye the Water Tribe warrior saw the Dai Lee agent looming over his prone body.

"End of the line for you, you little rat bastard," the agent said, kneeling down and reaching for the youth's neck.

Sokka saw his chance and attempted to kick him in the balls. Before his leg could make contact with the earthbender's family jewels, the agent's free hand reached down and caught the limb in his stony grip.

The agent smirked smugly. "Nice try punk."

The Water Tribe warrior drove the heel of his unencumbered foot as hard as he could into the Dai Lee agent's kneecap.

"I got two legs, dumbass," the young warrior spat before kicking the agent in his balls.

While the agent clutched at himself Sokka rolled onto his feet and scrambled away. He only managed to take a few steps before the ground beneath his feet shifted slightly, causing him to lose his balance and stumble. Looking over his shoulder, the warrior cursed as he saw that his enemy had recovered from the low blow and was standing- albeit unsteadily- on his own two feet.

Snarling like an animal, the Dai Lee agent stomped his foot, popping a pair of flat tiles out of the floor. With a deft movement of his fist the earthbender sent the tiles hurtling through the air at Sokka. Grabbing a meat cleaver that was stuck into a nearby chopping block, the Water Tribe warrior used the thick blade to deflect one of the speeding stone tiles but could do nothing to avoid the second one besides turning his body and letting his burned shoulder take the impact.

The tile hit his body and burst- scattering pieces of masonry everywhere and raising a small poof of dust that caused Sokka to sneeze. The Dai Lee agent charged at his smaller opponent, barreling into the young warrior, slamming him up against a countertop and grabbing a firm hold of the wrist that still clutched the meat cleaver.

Sokka began punching the agent in the face with his free hand. However, due to being bent over backwards over the counter and the fact that he was trying to throw the blows from his injured shoulder meant that his strikes only had a fraction of the power that they would normally have. Not nearly enough to phase a battle hardened member of the Dai Lee.

The earthbender sent half a dozen hard blows to the Sokka's torso. The stone encased fist repeatedly drove into his stomach causing him to gag viciously until finally the sandwich that he had eaten earlier that day was forced back up his wind pipe. Retching violently against the vile taste of vomit mixed with blood, the sickening ooze bubbled up out of his mouth- clogging up his lungs and spilling out over his face.

Sokka felt himself growing weaker; through bleary eyes, the Water Tribe warrior saw the earthbender grimace down at him in disgust. The agent grabbed a handful of the warrior's hair, pulling him up and slamming his head down onto the countertop. Though his brains were rattled, the Water Tribe warrior could already see where things were heading.

If he didn't do something quick, his brains were literally going to be beaten out.

The earthbender picked his head up to slam down on the counter again when Sokka- still clutching on to the meat cleaver in one of his hands- brought the thick blade down on the Dai Lee agent's taunt arm. Seeing the wound in his arm and the fact that Sokka was still armed was enough to force the agent to loosen his grip on Sokka's hair. The young warrior's cut really wasn't all that deep, but seeing your own blood leaking out of you always had an effect on people, no matter how cold-blooded they were.

Kicking the Dai Lee agent away from him, Sokka swung the cleaver at his enemy's face, making a shallow cut along the bridge of his nose. The agent stumbled backwards but was unable to right himself on his injured leg. Stepping into the larger man's instep, Sokka hooked his own leg around the earthbender's injured one and bulled forward with his shoulder, sending them both to the floor.

The two bodies hit the ground hard, with the earthbender taking the brunt of the impact. Recovering first, Sokka pulled himself onto his knees, pinning his enemy to the floor. The downed agent struggled violently, threatening to wrestle his way out of the smaller man's pin. The young warrior brought the cleaver up and brought the handle cracking down right between the earthbender's eyes.

'_Thunk!_'

The sound of handle hitting skull resonated inside of Sokka's head. The young warrior watched as the agent's eyes rolled all the way back into their sockets until he was eye to eye with a pair of dead white orbs; the body he was perched on top of went rigid and started to twitch. A gurgling, shuddering sound- like a sick labrepotamus whinny- emitted from his throat. It was sickening and disturbing for him to watch this- half-death of a human being. The brain was gone but the body hadn't yet gotten the message.

There was just something so wrong about that image.

Sokka placed the edge of the blade on the agent's neck. There was not nervousness in his gut; no fear in his heart; no hate in his soul; no anger to cloud his thoughts. There was only grim conviction.

He was a warrior of the Water Tribe, and a warrior of the Water Tribe didn't leave things half-done. He knew what his dad would want him to do.

'_Snnckt!' _

The cleaver went through the skin and muscle of the throat, the blood from the severed arteries shooting up in random spurts. The Dai Lee agent gurgled one last time before he finally expired- Sokka figured that, all things considered, he went pretty quietly. A warrior puts his enemies down clean; his father would have approved.

He could hear the sound of muffled voices; shouts coming from the room outside of the kitchen- if the place hadn't been deserted, he wouldn't have heard them. It had to be more Dai Lee agents- it was always more Dai Lee agents.

"Honestly, this is just getting annoying now," Sokka muttered to himself. He was so far past being scared, it was ridiculous.

The Water Tribe warrior reached down and dipped the fingers of his free hand into the gash in the dead Dai Lee agent's neck. Getting his fingers nice and bloody, Sokka smeared the red across his face. It wasn't berserker war paint, but it would do. He drew his lips back from his teeth, adopting what he thought was fierce and slightly maniacal snarl, gripping the meat cleaver in an attacking position; he'd scare the hell out of those…

"Sokka, are you in here?"

"Katara!?"

His sister and his friends filed into kitchen.

"Oh Spirits Sokka, what happened to you," Katara asked with concern.

"Long story," he said quickly, looking past his companions as he noticed that there was a fourth person along with the group; an unpleasantly familiar person.

"Where'd you find him?"

"Dungeons," Toph said simply.

The warrior eyed the Fire Prince- who was currently eyeing the motionless bodies in the room with interest- with naked suspicion.

"Why'd you let him out?"

"Because I'm going to help you stop my sister."

Sokka looked from the scarred face of his old adversary to the faces of his friends, coming to rest on the avatar.

"I trust him," the airbender said.

The Water Tribe warrior sighed; he was having serious misgivings about all of this but was way too tired and beat up to argue at this point.

"I am so ready for this day to be over…"

* * *


	23. Chapter 23

_Here it is! The stirring (I hope) conclusion to Yes, I am an Animal! This really should have been done two months ago, but a fatal combination of writers block, going back to school and Political Theory Essays comparing Locke and the Platonic ideal of government kept me from finishing this off until yesterday. _

_Anyway; Thanks to Everybody who reviewed and gave me encouragement, suggestions, and all that other good stuff. And also, Thanks to everybody who read and didn't review; you guys are awesome as well!_

Chapter 23

Mai tossed her newly acquired knife from hand to hand playfully- or as playfully as someone of her temperament could do anything. Back and forth; back and forth; toss, twirl, catch and toss again. From her place of prominence, seated on the Earth King's throne, the Princess of the Fire Nation tracked the flight path of the curved blade. Her golden irises watched the cold steel rise and fall as the girl seated on the steps beneath her continued to toss the knife.

Mai, clearly, was getting into one of her moods. The little adrenaline whore had obviously not been satisfied by the "diversions" of that afternoon. The princess smirked; Mai was agitated and craving for more action. That was a good thing; the knife wielder was twice as dangerous when she was worked up.

"This waiting around is killing me! I just wish that they'd hurry up and get here so we could do this."

Azula looked upwards at Ty Lee, who was balancing herself on her hands on top of the throne. Well, that was a surprise; the acrobat was not really one to be on edge, though the princess supposed that under present circumstances it was only to be expected. After all, they weren't about to face down just any opponent; they were going to go toe to toe with the avatar.

"Oh my goodness," the princess said, taking the chance to needle her flexible friend.

"Is that a bit of anxiety I hear in your voice Ty Lee?"

Ty Lee just scoffed. "More like pre-performance jitters."

The acrobat flipped out of her handstand, landing daintily on one of the wide arms of the throne.

"Well, I suppose that's to be expected. This _is_ kind of a big deal," Mai- who had been listening the entire time- said from her seat on the steps.

Azula adjusted herself in the throne, throwing her legs over one of the arms of the chair and stretching her arms back over her head. She looked up into the acrobat's wide eyes and smirked confidently.

"Patience ladies; the avatar and his lackeys will get here when they get here. Why, in fact, I'll wager that…"

'_KA-THOOM!!!' _

Azula found herself cut off as part of the wall at the opposite end of the chamber was blown inwards. Mai caught the knife that she had been tossing into the air and stood to her feet, the nervous tension that had been building up for the last hour slowly beginning to seep out of her muscles. Ty Lee hopped from her perch on the throne onto the floor, an eager look on her face. The Princess of the Fire Nation rolled her head towards the hole in the wall where the gigantic double doors that led into the throne chamber should have been and squinted into the billowing dust.

Striding purposefully out of the destruction the small yet somehow still imposing figure of the avatar emerged from the dust, flanked by his Water Tribe allies and the tiny earthbender that had eluded her trap earlier today. The most surprising sight of all for the three Fire Nation girls however was when the trailing figure of the avatar's group came into sight as the dust cleared.

'_Zuko?'_

Mai, Ty Lee and Azula shared brief, yet significant, looks with one another. The princess and the knife user in particular focused on the deposed prince. The last image that they had had of the scarred royal had been of him cowering like a wounded bait-dog. All of the life and vitality and hope and fight had been removed from him; his mind and his spirit had been broken. He should have still been curled up in a ball on a dirty cell floor.

But he wasn't. In fact, from the way he walked and held his head up high, he looked very much like the old Zuko; Zuko the fearless fool who never realized when he was beaten.

"We're here to end this Azula," the airbender intoned forcefully.

This declaration was met by sarcastic applause from the Princess of the Fire Nation.

"Well that certainly was an overblown and needlessly dramatic entrance. Though, I must give you credit avatar, you actually arrived here earlier than I expected. And you've managed to rescue all of your friends as well. Points for that."

Azula's cold golden eyes raked across her assembled foes before finally coming to rest on her brother. Her expression- the trademarked callous smirk that she usually wore- was almost instantly replaced by one of disgust.

"And I see you've started collecting strays as well. Hello brother; I see you've finally abandoned what little self-respect you managed to maintain and decided to become a complete turncoat."

The former prince simply maintained his intense glare at his younger sister and said nothing.

"Give up now; nobody has to get hurt," the avatar said.

Azula smirked, scoffing at the very idea that _she_ would ever capitulate, especially to a kid. Avatar or not, that airbender brat needed to be shown his place.

"Dear me, and I was just about to say the same thing to all of you!"

"This isn't a laughing matter princess," the waterbender sneered from her place alongside the avatar. "We've got you outnumbered. There's no way that you can beat us!"

The blue firebender simply rolled her eyes and boosted herself out of the Earth King's uncomfortably stiff throne. She looked down her nose at her assembled adversaries and sighed faux-apologetically.

"Oh, we're hardly outnumbered," Azula said, shaking her head in pity.

She clapped her hands together; at that signal half a dozen Dai Lee agents came sliding down the walls of the throne room and surrounded the opposing group.

"You know, it's become clear to me that none of you have realized the situation that you're in yet," the princess scoffed.

"Well, what can you expect Azula," Mai deadpanned, "we haven't exactly been forthcoming with them, y'know."

"Hmm, I suppose you're right. Do you think we should we enlighten them Mai?"

"I think we should."

Smiling pleasantly, the princess turned around and nodded towards her acrobat friend.

"Boys, open their eyes if you please."

The avatar's group looked at each other warily, the confusion evident on their faces; the banished prince looked significantly more uneasy than his allies. Playful banter was never a good sign with his sister. The Princess of the Fire Nation donned a triumphant smirk that she really had no business wearing. Lee gritted his teeth in rage and fear.

A pair of Dai Lee agents made their way over to the massive shutters that stood behind the Earth King's throne. The gigantic structures stretched eight sky bison's wide and loomed almost all the way up to the ceiling. With a single synchronized movement, the two earthbenders shifted the stone around the shutters and forced them open.

Against the fading light of day the avatar's group was treated to a magnificent view of spacious palatial garden that lay just outside of the royal throne chamber. One of the most ostentatious examples of the wealth of the Earth King, the palatial "garden" was less of a garden and more of a forest that had been uprooted and brought to the middle of the Forbidden City. Exotic trees and plant species from every corner of the kingdom were interspersed together in complex geometric patterns, intercut by white cobblestone paths, clear water streams and decorated with rich marble fountains.

The alarm bells in Lee's head were sounding and he felt his paranoia going into overdrive.

'_You crafty little minx; what are you about to pull?_'

"What are you trying to show us," Sokka questioned warily, giving voice to the scarred prince's concerns.

"Take a look outside," Azula directed. Turning on her heel, she walked towards the open window and halted at the edge of the giant sill and gazing out of the portal.

"You'll notice that behind the gates of the palatial garden, there's a fairly large building. That, I am told, is the Earth King's private bathhouse. It might be a bit more difficult to see now that the sun is almost down, but it is still quite visible."

Turning back towards the avatar and his allies, Azula continued, a sadistic smile on her face.

"For a building meant for one man's personal usage, it's surprisingly large; l_arge enough_, in fact, to hold all of the palace servants and the families of the palace guards. Well, all of the ones that are still alive of course."

The Princess of the Fire Nation practically laughed out loud once she saw the looks of horror appear across the faces of the avatar and his group. It was _delicious_. She summoned a small blue fireball into her hand and held it out of the window.

"That entire facility is guarded by a deployment of Dai Lee agents. Once I launch this fireball into the sky, those agents are under orders to collapse the entire building, killing everyone inside. If they do not receive a particular signal from me by the Hour of the Elephant-Rat, which by the way is only around ten minutes away, they are under orders to collapse the building, killing everyone inside."

Azula looked down on her humbled enemies, practically preening in triumph; she was having entirely too much fun.

"You have only one option left to you. Agree to surrender to me unconditionally and you have my word of honor that the hostages will not be harmed."

'_Bitch_,' the former prince thought bitterly.

He should have been expecting this; using other people's lives as bargaining chips was a textbook Azula move. The thing he was most worried about, however, was his allies. He ran a quick eye over all of their faces. The waterbender, the earthbender, the Water Tribe warrior, and especially the avatar were all standing rooted in place with various degrees of horror and anger on their faces.

Lee recognized that look; it was the expression of people who had had been forced so far into a corner that none of them could see any way out. The lives of hundreds- thousands- of people were poised upon a blade's edge. Lee could see his allies working things out in their heads; could they fight Azula and prevent her from launching her signal _and_ rescue the hostages before ten minutes were up?

Probably not; in fact, there was very little that they could hope to do to save any of those innocents. Little they could do aside from taking Azula's option.

The scarred vagrant could already see the defeat forming into their faces. They were going to give themselves up and by doing so they were going to damn _him_ along with them in the process. Their noble sacrifice was going to deliver him into the hands of his enemies.

Fuck. That!

The former prince advanced aggressively, bringing his arms wide around his body, trying to summon as much fire as he could in the few short steps he made towards the throne before launching his flaming plume towards his baby sister.

Lee couldn't see the expression on his sister's face through the flames but if he could, he would have caught the brief flash of shock that passed across her face as she saw the gout of flame rocketing towards her. Never one to be given over to surprise for very long Azula quickly righted herself and placed a booted heel on the windowsill behind her before flipping acrobatically out of the path of her brother's attack.

She managed to launch herself clear of the flames, but the concussion from the impact of the blast was stronger than she had anticipated and ended up sending her farther than she had intended. Quick as a flash, Ty Lee and Mai leaped into the air and caught hold of their out of control friend as she came down into their arms.

Meanwhile, the Dai Lee agents in the room began moving on the small group.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

The waterbender was yelling at Lee; the scarred vagrant listened with only half of an ear. Now that he had managed to stir up the crawler's nest, the avatar and his group had no choice but to fight it out.

"I'll stay and deal with my sister. If you plan on saving those hostages, you had better hurry up," the former prince said as a means of reply.

Katara looked like she wanted to say something but was prevented from doing so by her brother.

"He's right. You, me and Aang can go and stop them from collapsing the bathhouse! Toph!"

"Way ahead of you snoozles," the blind earthbender said, already moving to take the fight to the attacking Dai Lee agents.

The avatar turned on the prince and gave him a bare look.

"You can take her?"

No response.

The airbender sighed turning towards the open window, snapping open his glider. He called '_good luck_' over his shoulder before gathering a gust of wind beneath his body and propelling himself through the portal and into the twilight.

* * *

The Earth rushed by and fell away as the airbender manipulated the air currents that were his birthright and propelled himself into the sky. He had no time to lose this time; he didn't even have time to give Katara or Sokka time to catch up to him. There was no telling if Zuko would be able to hold off Azula and keep her from launching her signal.

The avatar pushed himself through the sky as fast as his powers would allow; Aang was acutely aware of just how far away his destination was and how little time that he had to get there. As the gargantuan bathhouse grew larger in his vision, the airbender began a steep ascent over the roof of the building. Flying higher upwards, Aang abruptly halted his ascent and snapped his glider shut. Falling back towards the Earth head first the avatar began spinning his body like a drill, his small body cutting through the air and leaving a cyclone in his wake.

Punching his fists forward before his head could slam into the stone, Aang felt as the stone of the bathhouse roof crumpled and collapsed beneath his touch. Flipping his body through the air and landing softly on his feet in the center of a mass of terrified people, the young avatar scanned the room.

He had apparently landed in the bathhouse's main chamber in a gigantic pool that had been drained of its water. It was currently teeming with huddled and frightened people who were staring at him in mixed looks of awe and horror. Ignoring the hostages, Aang instead focused on the only other people in the chamber besides him who were on their feet; the Dai Lee agents.

The earthbenders looked just as shocked as everyone else at what had just happened and the avatar wasn't about to give them a chance to regain their senses. Using his powers over the air, Aang brought the tip of the cyclone that he had been trailing behind him in his dive down through the hole he had made in the roof. The Dai Lee agents were quickly thrown from their feet by the gale force winds that had suddenly been unleashed inside of the building.

Aang controlled the in-door storm, flowing smoothly through airbending kata and making sure that he kept the whirling winds from picking up and carrying away any of the hostages; it pushed him to the very limits of his concentration and skill but he somehow managed.

When he had dispatched all of the guards, Aang leaped out of the drained pool and used earthbending to create several large holes in one of the walls.

"EVERYONE RUN AWAY NOW,"

The avatar shouted at the top of his lungs, urging the hostages to get up and run for their lives. While the hundreds climbed over each other to get out, he ignored their stuttered and breathless thanks. There were more in other rooms. He still had to get to them; he still had to hurry!

Boosting himself over the escaping crowed on a bubble of air, Aang selected a random doorway and ran through it. There were more, he had to hurry!

He came upon another room; he dispatched the Dai Lee guards and freed the hostages. No time to rest, there were still more to go. He came upon one more room and dispatched the guards, yelling at the hostages to run for their lives; he couldn't stop. There were still more!

He ran back into the hallway, intent on heading to another room, when he felt the earth tremble beneath his feet. The young airbender could hear the crash and crumble of tumbling stone. A sick, dark aura flooded his Avatar Sense; it was the primal and undeniable anguish of violent death. Aang stopped in the middle of his run and wretched.

Even as the building was coming down around him, falling rubble almost laying open his skull open several times, the airbender couldn't force himself to move.

There was no need to hurry anymore. Sadness and anger tore through the young avatar's body as the collected grief of the murdered hostages flooded over him. He felt his mind slipping away into a white blank and he didn't even try to resist its pull. His mind was filled with one name.

'_Azula!_'

She did this! And she was going to pay!

* * *

Recovering from her unexpectedly wild flight, Azula managed to gather herself just in time to witness her prize- the avatar- rocketing out of the throne room window, followed soon after by his two Water Tribe lackeys. For a frustrating moment, the princess thought that they were making their escape and would once again slip through her fingers.

Then she realized that the trio was probably trying to rescue the hostages that were being held by her men in the bathhouse. She still had a chance to bring off the coup of the Earth Kingdom and the capture of the avatar at the same time. But first…

"Mai, Ty Lee! Take two Dai Lee agents and go after the avatar and his lackeys. My brother and I are going to need some _alone time_."

Complying wordlessly the acrobat and the knife mistress collected a pair of Dai Lee agents and followed the avatar out of the window. Azula watched them leave out of the corner of her eye before turning her full attention towards where her brother was standing, body loose and glaring her down into the ground. The Princess of Fire matched his gaze evenly.

"I have to say, you surprised me Zuzu; don't think that I don't realize what you did by attacking me like that. I admit that I had never even considered that you would condemn thousands of innocent hostages to death, just to confront me. Tell me; when did you grow a backbone?"

"There's no guarantee that I've condemned anyone," her older brother replied, ignoring the cheap shot at his ego.

Azula scoffed. "Oh please… do you really believe that?"

"…..At this point, does it matter," the older of Ozai's children asked, scowling.

Azula looked thoughtful for a second before delivering her own response.

"I suppose not."

As soon as the last word was out of her mouth, the Princess of the Fire Nation flicked a deadly dart of blue flame towards her brother's face, hoping to take him off guard. Her gambit proved ineffective as Zuko leaned his head out of the way and launched a larger fireball low, towards Azula's feet. The flame impacted about a little more than a foot from where she stood.

The fireball hit the floor and exploded with a boom and a flash of bright light; the princess shielded her eyes and retreated a few steps backwards and to her left on instinct. Azula had fought and bested Zuko many times in the past; she expected her brother to come bulling forward to press his advantage, like he always did in situations like this and set herself up to take him from his weak side when he came charging at her.

The Fire Princess unexpectedly found herself having to block a plume of red and orange flames that was speeding towards her torso. Instead of charging forward like she had expected, Zuko had instead opted to retreat and mark her movements. Sidestepping another fireball, the female firebender rushed towards her adversary. Executing a double front flip to build up power she launched a powerful rocket of blue fire from her feet.

Rather than trying to dodge around the enormous fire blast, the former prince opted to meet the attack head on. Standing up to the flame, he thrust both of his fists into the dancing blue mass and ate the attack, earning himself a good scalding on his knuckles. Zuko was able to dissipate the worst of attack but slid back in his tracks from the explosive concussion of the blast, just managing to keep his feet.

Going on the offensive, the former prince summoned two whips made of flame. Raising one of the scorching weapons over his head, Zuko brought it crashing down towards Azula, who was still lying on her backside after her acrobatic attack. She quickly rolled out of the way to avoid the whip, ending up on her belly. The Princess of the Fire Nation sensed more than saw the follow up attack coming and pushed herself into a headstand.

From her inverted position, Azula used her feet to bat away the attack from her brother's whip before lifting her body from a headstand into a handstand. Using her arms, the princess managed to spin her body and whip her legs around her body like a pinwheel, sending jets of flames out from her feet. The attack was weak, but it was strong enough to get her brother to halt his attack and gave her enough time to regain her feet.

Once she had righted herself, Azula wasted no time in recapturing the initiative. Running towards Zuko in a zig-zag pattern, she effortlessly avoided the clumsily launched fireballs he sent her way. In his hasty attempts to escape from his charging sister, the former prince got caught up in his own feet and stumbled. Closing the distance between them, Azula engulfed a handful of fingers in flames, preparing to punish her brother for his mistake; his feet weren't set- he couldn't firebend well enough to hold her off.

A bestial smile spread across her face as she moved in for the kill; she was steps away from delivering her coup de grace when she noticed that her brother bore a predatory leer that matched her very own. Acutely honed survival instincts forcing her body to move before she formed a conscious thought to move, Azula bucked her head. She felt something sharp cut into the top of her forehead and snag into the hair, causing her topknot to become partially undone.

'_He threw something at me?!?_'

She barely had the time to complete that startled thought before Zuko was on her. But instead of attacking her with the expected firebending assault, her scarred sibling instead attacked her with physical strikes. Azula was taken aback as Zuko launched a barrage of punches aimed at her head and upper body. The lithe firebender barely managed to fend off a knuckle strike to her throat but was powerless to stop the hard strike that her brother sent to her left bicep. As the limb fell limp she was knocked off of her feet when Zuko used a rolling sweep kick to knock her legs out from under her.

The princess hit the ground hard, but defended herself ably, shooting a stream of blue fire at her brother's face from her back; unlike him, she could firebend even when her root was broken. The former prince turned away from the attack while his sister sprang back to her feet and put some distance between the two of them. She flexed her left arm until the pins and needles feeling in it subsided.

With a distinct force of will, the Princess of the Fire Nation managed to calm her breathing and slowed her heart rate down to a less manic level. Ten feet across from her, her older brother did the same thing. Azlua reached up and removed the projectile that was still stuck in her hair. Freeing the object from her tresses, she looked down at the little piece of metal in her hand before quirking an eyebrow at her brother, as if to ask…

'_Really?_'

The Princess almost missed the slight upturn to the former prince's lip as he shrugged and continued to stare holes into her. Was he… did he find this _amusing_?

For the first time in her memory, Azula's gaze towards her brother was not tinged with mockery or disgust or condescension, but with genuine wariness. She didn't know what had happened to him over the past few hours to turn him from the blubbering weakling at her feet into… _this_.

Well, whatever the reason for his improvement, it still didn't put her on the same level as her. She still hadn't started going all out yet but she realized that she might have miscalculated by assuming that Zuko would still be as pathetic as she remembered him being. She realized her mistake; she would stop looking at her brother as sport and start viewing him as a threat.

'_Zuko… a threat?_'

The Princess shook her head slightly, bemused by the idea. Who would have thought it possible?

Over her brother's shoulder, Azula observed her Dai Lee agents engaging the little earthbender from the avatar's party in battle. The girl in green seemed to be holding her own quite admirably. The princess grimaced on the inside; things were going entirely too well for her enemies. As much as she loved to play with Zuko, the Princess was angling for a much bigger prize and to be frank, she didn't really trust her subordinates to handle something this important without her. If she wanted to have Ba Sing Se _and_ the avatar in her hands, she would have to see to the little airbender's defeat and capture personally. This meant that, unfortunately, her brother would have to die much sooner than she would have preferred.

Seizing the initiative this time, Azula sent a brace of blue fireblasts towards her brother's lower body. Zuko, showing a surprising amount of agility, turned away from the blasts and flipped to the side. The few seconds that he was airborne gave the Princess enough time to form a blue fireball between her palms. Feeding more of her energy into the ball, she charged up her shot until the small ball had grown the size of an ostrich-horse's head.

When she judged it to be sufficiently powerful, Azula launched the blue meteor. Timing her strike so that it would hit Zuko before he had a chance to execute another dodge, the Princess watched as her brother somehow managed to summon a small wall of fire to shield himself from the flames. The former prince could do nothing about the force from the blast, the explosive concussion sending him flying backwards.

Azula took a second or so to enjoy seeing her older sibling skid across the floor before throwing both of her arms to the side; focusing her mind, she forcibly separated the positive and negative energies in her body. Bringing the two opposing charges together, the firebending prodigy felt the cold-blooded fire building up in her torso and calmly directed the lightning out of her body, guiding it towards her hapless sibling.

Azula's witchlike cackle was drowned out by the deafening roar from the bolt that she had just fired.

The former prince of the Fire Nation had seen what Azula was going for before she got off her shot of lightning; he had seen it and been absolutely incapable of doing anything about it. He'd fucked up. It was too late to dodge, too late to roll, too late to do anything except contemplate what death by lightning was going to feel like. Then it occurred to him that he could try to redirect the blast, but the chances of him successfully pulling off that little maneuver were extremely slim.

Iroh had explained the basics of the technique to him _one time _and he had no actual experience in redirecting a lightning attack. An enormous amount of rage flooded the scarred bender's body; he couldn't just die like this!

Lee felt the lightning slam into him; it was completely unlike anything he had ever felt before. It hurt everywhere at once; his skin, his muscles, even his hair and teeth were ravaged by the electricity. But through the pain, the former prince experienced something strange.

A moment of clarity.

Though he felt his body frying, his mind was working in overdrive. As he was being pushed back in his tracks by the force of the blast, Lee felt his body moving of its own accord. It was as if another presence had taken over his body and was directing his actions, making him guide the lightning into his belly and directing it back up his arm and out of his fingertips, right back at the startled face of his sister.

The ground in front of Azula exploded in a spray of stone and dust as the Princess of the Fire Nation was blown through the air and flung across the floor into an undignified heap.

Azula looked up at her brother, her teeth gritted and her face scrunched into an angry scowl. So, he had finally made her mad. Azula had been trying to kill him before, but now she looked like she planning to _**KILL**_ him.

Honestly, he should have been more worried than he was. This time, it was his turn to smirk while she struggled up from the floor; Lee slowly exhaled a lungful of smoke.

"_That_ all you got?"

* * *

"ON YOUR LEFT! DUCK!"

Without stopping to check over her shoulder, Katara immediately dropped into roll upon hearing the warning from her brother. The waterbender felt the breeze of a body passing over her back before hearing the soft impact as that body made contact with the ground. Coming out of her roll, the waterbender popped the cap on her waterskin and sent a vicious low water whip towards the feet of that fucking circus bitch.

Ty Lee, though weighed down by the Kyoshi armor that she still wore, was still to once again elude Katara's best attempts to put her down. Growling out of shear frustration, the waterbender had to work quickly to bring the water back around for another attack; the acrobat, however, proved to be swifter than anticipated. The armored girl quickly closed the distance, outpacing the whip in their race to get to the waterbender first.

"CHANGE," Katara shouted.

Just as Ty Lee got to within spitting distance of the waterbender, Katara felt a rough touch on her back; recognizing the signal she spun and flipped her heels into the air, rolling across the back of her brother and leaving the warrior to deal with the circus freak.

Ty Lee's reflexes had their work cut out for them- snapping her head back just in time to keep warrior's machete from taking off her nose. Landing on her feet with her reformed water whip encircling her body like a serpent, Katara focused her attention on Azula's other main lackey. The knife thrower was flitting back and forth from behind the trees of the Earth King's private forest, discharging a blade every time she changed a hiding place.

The waterbender used a bit of her water to deflect some of the flying projectiles and hopped out of the way of the others. Katara cursed- she and Sokka had gone out of the window to help Aang in freeing the hostages in the bathhouse but had had to deal with being attacked by Mai and Ty Lee. It was clear that neither one of them was going to be able to help the avatar in freeing the hostages but they could help him by taking care of the Terror Twins.

Katara caught a glint of steel coming towards her and instinctively moved her head to the side. She felt as the edge of the projectile sliced into her cheek, leaving a bloody line across her face. The waterbender cursed; to defeat the knife girl, she would need to go into the trees after her- and if she did that, she was just asking to get ambushed.

"Can you handle her alone," she called to Sokka.

"Oh, yeah! No…GAAH!... problem," the winded and bedeviled warrior responded.

Trusting (read: praying) that her brother had things under control, Katara rushed headlong into the stand of trees that she had seen Mai retreat into, keeping her water at the ready hovering around her body. As soon as she entered the trees the waterbender took cover behind the solid trunk of an ancient pine and shifted her water back into its container. She took a moment to settle in and think of her next move.

The light of the sun was almost depleted as the great fireball had almost completed its journey beneath the horizon. The foliage in this part of the royal gardens was surprisingly thick and before long, the entire place would be thrown into total darkness. Katara didn't like the idea of having to fight in the dark; but if she just rushed headlong through the forest, she would just make a very loud and easy target for her enemy. Honestly, Katara wasn't sure what to do.

As it turned out, the waterbender didn't have the luxury of time to figure out what her next move was going to be. From her vantage point in the lower branches of a tree, Mai could just make out the outline of the Water Tribe girl. Flipping a pair of stilettos into her hand, the knife mistress launched them at Katara's head.

The waterbender yelped as the pair of blades lodged themselves in the wood centimeters from her head. Hopping to her feet, Katara traced the trajectory of the daggers and started running in the direction that they had likely come from. Mai cursed- her aim had been thrown off by the darkness. Usually she would have tossed more than two in order to compensate for the poor visibility but she was running low right now after the "activities" of that afternoon.

'_Great, now I'll have to do it the hard way.' _

Dropping down from the tree, Mai landed and matched the waterbender's charge with one of her own. Ten feet from each other Mai flicked a stiletto from her left hand, aiming to place the slender dagger right between the water bitch's eyes. Katara countered, dodging to one side and responding with a water whip that threatened to knock her enemy's head off of her shoulders. Flopping onto her back Mai pressed a space on the inside of her right thigh, triggering the mechanism on her leg that fired the mini-darts attached to the leg.

Katara had less than a second to register that her whip hadn't hit her enemy when the brace of four darts came at her. Two of them missed her completely; one of them buried itself into her right shoulder. The final one entered into her right eye.

"GAAAHHHH!"

The Water Tribe girl's head swam as the world in front of her eyes exploded into vibrant red. Katara stumbled backwards into the underbrush, her precious water defense splashing to the ground as her concentration was broken. Flipping back up onto her feet, Mai took a few seconds to relax and let some of the tension ease out of her body. She drew her new curved knife from her waist sash before calmly stepping into the underbrush after the wounded waterbender.

Night had finally fallen over Ba Sing Se; with the moonless night, the darkness in the Earth King's private forest/garden was almost complete. While Mai couldn't see more than a few feet in front of her face, her ears were sharp enough to hear all of the racket that the waterbender was making in her frantic attempts to put some distance between them. The knife wielder indulged in a brief smirk of triumph before following the sounds of her prey.

Meanwhile, Katara had managed to beat down the panic that had overtaken her when the dart had entered her eye, but she was still plenty scared. She had been rendered defenseless after losing concentration over her water and there weren't any other sources anywhere around that she could see. Also, her eye was searing with pain, the initial shock of receiving the wound having worn off. The waterbender used an arm to steady herself against a tree, her other hand covered her bloody right eye.

The nerve wracked waterbender's hearing, made hypersensitive by fear, saved her life as she heard a twig snap behind her. Katara, moving more on instinct than design, spun around and dived behind the tree; her movement meant that the knife that would have cleaved through her spine only ended up leaving a shallow cut in her ribs.

'_Damn!_'

She had to think! This bitch was going to kill her! But to be able to fight she needed water and she had nothing! Noth-….

'_Wait a sec…_'

Knowing that she only had seconds before her enemy came out swinging from the other side of the tree Katara worked her hands; drawing the sweat and blood seeping from her body she was able to amass a small amount of water just as Mai turned the edge of the tree. In a last ditch attempt to stop her enemy Katara used a water-blade, whipping a high pressure arc of water towards the other girl's face.

Unfortunately, Mai saw the move coming and used her arms to shield herself. The blade of water was powerful enough to penetrate the cloth and iron of the Kyoshi gauntlets that she wore and left a pair of deep cuts in her flesh of her forearms, but it wasn't nearly enough to kill her. Resolving to not let her enemy get another shot like that, Mai ate the attack and charged through; closing the distance, the knife user buried her knee into the waterbender's wounded side, laying the younger girl out against a nearby tree.

Moving in for the kill, Mai rushed forward and lifting her blade over her head brought it down on the slumping girl. Katara reached up her own hands and caught the knife-wielder at the wrists, staving off death by centimeters. The two girls stood locked in their embrace, pushing against each other; it was clear to both, however, who the eventual winner of this test of strength would be. Mai smirked as she could feel the Water Tribe girl's resistance beginning to ebb; this would be over any second now.

Katara wasn't listening; she was too busy staring out of her one good eye at the knife. A knife that she recognized as belonging to Soeharto; it was something a Fire Nation bitch had no right having it in her hands. And all at once, Katara felt her breast swell with anger.

"Hope you know, it's nothing personal," the knife-wielder grunted dispassionately.

"Too bad," the waterbender spat back, "because for me, it is!"

Taking a deep breath, Katara inhaled two lungs full of air and exhaled her Breath of Frost. Mai quirked an eyebrow in curiosity; so what if she blew out some frost! It wouldn't do her much good without any water around for her to freeze. The knife-mistress did not realize her mistake until it was much too late.

It started as a tingle in the cuts on Mai's forearms. Almost immediately that tingle grew into excruciating, stinging pain that raced from her forearms all the way up to the tips of her fingers as the very blood in her veins _froze_. Her knife slipped from her grasp as her hands fell at her side, the appendages as rigid and useless as the hands on a stone sculpture.

"AAAGGGHH," Mai screamed, tearing herself away from the Water Tribe girl. She stumbled a few steps backwards and stared at her hands in a horrified stupor.

The parts of her flesh that she could see through the cuts in her clothing weren't their usual pale-rosy color. Her skin was blue and waxy; it was flesh more befitting of a frozen corpse than a living human being. Mai looked up in horrified rag at the witch that had done this to her.

"W-what did you do," she coked out, biting down the urge to just scream wordlessly against the pain.

Katara, however, was in no mood to give explanations. Picking Soeharto's knife from where it had fallen on the ground, the waterbender ran forward, the wicked blade's handle cupped in both hands. Throwing her body forward, Katara drove the point of the knife into Mai's midsection. The blade, more by accident than design, slipped in between a space in the Kyoshi armor and pierced soft flesh.

Twin looks of shock passed over the faces of both girls; Mai, not able to register that she had just been skewered by her own weapon. Katara who, now the passion of the moment had passed, was fully able to register what she had done.

"-_huuk_!"

Both girls were snapped out of their stupor as Mai quietly hacked up blood onto Katara's face before her eyes rolled back in her head- a telltale tear streaming down her cheek- and she slumped forward onto the waterbender. Katara pushed the motionless body away from her in frightened disgust, the knife coming free as the Fire Nation girl fell onto the ground.

As the adrenaline seeped out of her, Katara immediately grabbed at the vial of water filled from the sacred spring at the North Pole and rushed to the knife-wielder's side. Just as she was about to pop the top of the vial she stopped. And she thought.

'_Aang…Sokka…Toph…_'

A spasm of pain radiated from her eye as she stood to her feet; she tugged gently at the dart that was still buried in the socket and winced when the small projectile wouldn't budge. She'd deal with it later.

She had to find her brother.

* * *

Sokka had wished for the day to be over; he had wished for this most _royally_-_fucked-up_ of all days to just end and allow him to go someplace quiet with a nice comfy bed- complete with a pretty girl or two- and just sleep. Well, once the sun had finally drifted below the horizon, the day had technically ended. His situation hadn't gotten any better; not that he expected that it would, of course, but a man could still dream, couldn't he?

Right now, the Water Tribe warrior was crouched between the forelimbs of a life-sized shrub sculpture of a badger-mole, trying desperately to rub some feeling back into the left side of his body. From his position under the badger-mole's belly, Sokka peeked out into the surrounding darkness, trying to catch sight of his acrobatic enemy. He knew that he was probably wasting his time- the girl jumped from tree to tree like a kite-squirrel- but it cost him nothing to look.

Not seeing anything, the young warrior ducked his head back into the shrubbery and worked one of the few fully functioning components on his body; his brain.

He had known from the moment that he had stepped up to face her; he didn't stand a chance against Ty Lee in a straight up fight. The girl was just too skilled for him to face on a level playing field. So he had tried fighting dirty; he had tried running away and launching sneak attacks; he had tried setting traps. And at the end of all his efforts he had been left without his machete and his knife, his boomerang was Spirit's knew where and half of his body had all of the strength and dexterity of a bowl of jellied eels. Still, he wasn't dead or captured yet, so that was something.

As much as he wanted to look on the bright side, Sokka knew that he couldn't count on backup coming any time soon; Katara still hadn't come back after chasing the creepy girl into the forest and Aang was occupied doing whatever he was doing….

"I really, really, _really_ hate this," the Water Tribe warrior sighed. In order to achieve victory, it looked like he would have to do something stupid…again.

Coming out from under the shrub, Sokka brushed himself off with his working arm and stood out in the middle of the clearing where the lone badger-mole stood.

"ALRIGHTY, I'M NOT GONNA HIDE ANYMORE TY LEE," he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"COME ON OUT! I KNOW YOU'RE AROUND HERE SOMEWHERE! LET'S FINISH THIS, MAN TO MAN- err, WOMAN! SORRY ABOUT THAT LAST PART; I'M NOT SUGGESTING THAT YOU'RE MASCULINE IN ANY WAY, CAUSE, Y'KNOW, YOU'RE NOT! YOU'RE ACTUALLY VERY PRETTY…SO…UM…YEAH."

'_What the hell am I doing,' _Sokka wondered while smacking himself in the head. Was that a challenge or an awkward attempt at flirting?!

"So, you think I'm pretty, huh?"

Quickly extricating his face from his palm, the half-paralyzed warrior looked up and looked into the bubbly, grinning face of the enemy. The Kyoshi war-paint that had been covering her face had mostly been wiped away and her hair was a frazzled mess, but she still looked as chipper as a walrus-otter that had just found a mate; Sokka was getting pissed off just looking at her.

"Alright, it's time we end this," Sokka declared, before taking up a fighting stance- or at least as close to a fighting stance his half limp body could manage.

"What's your name?"

Sokka blinked. "Um… what?"

The Water Tribe warrior looked at the acrobat, perplexed. What exactly was she trying to get at.

"Well, you know my name but I don't think we've ever been properly introduced. It's not like I can just call you '_avatar's friend_' or '_sexy-aura guy_' now can I?"

'_Wait, I'm sexy-aura guy?_'

Sokka gave himself a mental shake, freeing himself of the stray thought. What the hell? Giving out his name at this point would matter anyway.

"My name is Sokka of the Tips, the son of Bato, who was the son of Hodan and warrior of the Southern Water Tribe," the young man stated, declaring his full title and bowing as per the formal customs of his tribe.

"The Tips?"

"It's a glacier that looks like the horns on a bull-caribou. Y'see when I was young I got lost and… y'know what? It's not important! Your turn."

"Alright Mr. Tips! I am Dame Chan Ty Lee, eighth daughter of the imperious governor of the Mandarin Pavilion and professional circus acrobat!"

The Fire Nation girl punctuated her recitation of her name and title with a wide grin and a thumb up. Sokka chuckled; he couldn't help himself. She was just too cute; he sighed. Well, it was time to get to work.

"Ooookay, _now_ can we end this," he asked, reassuming his admittedly half-assed fighting stance.

"You can't be serious," Ty Lee replied, genuine concern in her voice.

"Sokka, you've got no chance. You'd be better off just giving up; I really don't want to have to hurt you."

"Hey, don't take me so lightly, alright! No woman can handle me," the Water Tribe warrior boasted.

He puffed his chest out a bit more. "I bet you won't be able to last three moves against me."

Ty Lee, understandably, scoffed at the young man's notion. Even at his full capacity, Sokka had proven that he was hardly a match against her in a stand up fight; he was letting his pride get the best of him. But if that's the way he wanted it, then that's the way it was going to be. She would try to go easy on him though.

Sokka, watching closely, waited until he saw the acrobat's body tense up before she sprung towards him. The Water Tribe warrior felt his own adrenaline spike; he knew she was coming to paralyze the still mobile side of his body. Avoiding her first strike was crucial.

Just as he predicted the girl came right at him, darting forward to deliver a flurry of knuckle strikes designed to turn him into a dead fish. Sokka twisted his body so that the girl's hands only hit the already deadened flesh on his left side; he barely felt the impacts. The warrior lowered his shoulder and attempted a rush, only to have Ty Lee flip over his back.

Stumbling, Sokka turned and saw the acrobat was already bounding back towards him. Throwing a strike to his right shoulder, Sokka felt his entire right arm go dead. It didn't matter at this point though, because Ty Lee was finally close enough. Rearing back his head, Sokka used all of the power of his neck muscles as well as his lower body into bringing his exceptionally thick skull crashing down on the acrobat's head.

A resounding crack rang out through the forest as head met harder head. Ty Lee stumbled backwards drunkenly, her eyes rolling around in her head as her brain rattled about the confines of her skull. Sokka, only mildly dazed, shook himself back into awareness. Rearing back again, the warrior brought his head crashing down onto the shorter girl's face.

This time Ty Lee's eyes crossed and she toppled over backwards, unconscious and with blood seeping out of her bent nose. Standing over her limp form, Sokka looked down on the Fire Nation girl, and only relaxed when he was sure that she was really not going to be getting up any time soon. The feeling in his left side was starting to come back and he lifted his hand to wipe the sweat off of his brow, belatedly realizing that what was trickling down his head was blood, not sweat.

Sighing, Sokka directed his eyes upward into the night sky and was surprised to see a bright light streaking across the sky.

"Oh no..."

That was obviously Aang, and if he was in the Avatar State, then the situation with the hostages obviously hadn't worked out for the best. Looking back down at the motionless form of Ty Lee, Sokka walked over to her and placed one of his boots to her neck, intent on crushing her larynx. After standing there for a few second, boot at the ready, the young warrior sighed heavily in frustration and pulled his foot away. He knew that it was stupid to leave a dangerous enemy alive but….

'_Damnit!_'

It would have been so much easier if she had been an evil bitch like her friends! Turning on his heel, he quickly left the clearing. He had to find his sister.

The most obvious thing to do would be to head for the place where they had first gotten separated. Hurrying along one of the footpaths that cut through the palatial gardens, Sokka continued to shout for his sister.

"KATARA! KATARA! CAN YOU HEAR ME?"

"SOKKA? I'M OVER HERE; CAN YOU FOLLOW THE SOUND OF MY VOICE?"

"YEAH; JUST STAY WHERE YOU ARE!"

Running through a nearby copse of exotic fruit trees the Water Tribe warrior saw his sister leaning over an ornate marble bird bath, coaxing a small spout of water out of the top.

"You okay there sis," Sokka asked breathlessly.

Katara paused for a moment before looking up at him; Sokka almost gagged when he saw the dart.

"I've been better," she replied, trying to crack a smile but failing painfully at it.

Sokka rushed over to her side. Taking his baby sister's face in his hands, he examined the wound.

"I've been trying to pull it out, but it won't budge. I can't heal it as long as this thing is in here," Katara said.

She also couldn't get it out because the pain was excruciating, but her brother didn't need to know that.

"The head's probably barbed," the warrior mumbled, mostly to himself. "I'll get it out for you; just keep that water ready."

Squaring his sister up against one of the trees, the warrior grabbed a firm hold of the dart with one hand and her shoulder with the other.

"You know that when I yank this out…the eye's probably coming with it, right?"

Katara shrugged as nonchalantly as she could; she had figured as much, but it wasn't like the thing could stay in there.

"On three," he asked. She nodded, already preparing to bend the water to heal the wound.

"One…Two…"

'_Squickk'_

"_**FUCK!!!**__**"**_

"Whoa, whoa, easy there," Sokka said, holding his sister upright as her knees buckled from the shock of having her eye plucked out.

Katara usually wasn't one for foul language but under the circumstances, the young warrior felt that her statement was more than appropriate. Miraculously, the waterbender had managed to maintain control over the water still encasing her hand. Without wasting any time Katara placed the soothing liquid over the gaping wound in her face and sighed in relief as the pain began to finally subside. She could feel her healing powers working, but she could also feel the emptiness in the space where an eye should have been. Waterbending was good for closing wounds, but it couldn't grow back body parts that were lost.

"Well…I know who's getting a set of designer eye patches for her birthday."

Katara snorted out a surprised laugh and punched her brother in his arm.

"A little too soon to be making jokes Sokka."

Her older brother smiled and shrugged. "Hey, it got that depressed look off of your face."

Katara smiled back; it faltered when she remembered what she was carrying in her waistband. Pulling Soeharto's knife out of her belt, she wordlessly handed it to Sokka. The waterbender watched as shock, then sadness, and then anger flashed across her brother's face before his features settled into a neutral expression.

"That girl- the one with the knives- she had it," Katara explained. "I'm sorry Sokka."

"We can be sorry later," the warrior replied more sharply than he had intended.

"I saw Aang flying back to the palace and he was in the Avatar State. We've got to get to him before something bad happens."

Tearing a strip of cloth from her garment and tying the piece tightly around her now empty eye socket, Katara caught her second wind and hopped to her feet. She fished Appa's bison whistle out of her clothes.

"Let's go."

* * *

The monster of a fireball that was screaming towards lee was much too big for him to avoid; he'd have to eat this hit.

He seemed to be doing that a lot in this fight.

Protecting his vital areas, the scarred firebender stood up to the blast as best he could but still eventually found himself taking leave of his feet and being propelled violently through a window. Landing hard on the pavement outside, Lee managed to keep his head from knocking against the stones and rolled onto his feet. As soon as he was upright, he picked a direction and took off running. His sister was going to be right behind him.

Clearing the windowsill with a leap, the Princess of the Fire Nation spotted her brother making a break for it and ran after him. Looking over his shoulder, the former prince saw his little sister coming up fast on his tail. Stopping abruptly, Lee turned and let fly with a fire blast from his foot.

Azula, unable to simply come to a stop and change direction, maintained her momentum and hopped over the attack- making the difficult maneuver look like child's play. Lee had been able to hold his own so far in this battle, but his sister was just a better firebender than him. At first he had been able to make up for the gaps in their skill through a combination of unorthodox moves, dirty tactics and his sister's constant underestimation of his abilities.

Landing on her feet, the princess began returning fire.

Lee nimbly dodged around the blue tendrils of flame. Swerving around the attacks, the scarred bender advanced and fired blasts back. Shooting a fire blast at the ground to Azula's left side; Lee forced her to start retreating to her right. Seeing an opportunity, Lee sent a lash of flames over her head and into the small stands of trees on either side of her. Bringing his palms together, Lee willed the flames cackling in the branches downwards to engulf his sister.

Azula was mildly surprised at the attack from above but reacted to it handily. Spinning her body at a high rate the Princess of Fire manipulated the flames into an orbit around her body before expelling them from her body. She smiled wickedly at her brother.

"Nice try Zuzu, but you'll have to do better than that."

The former prince felt his frustration mounting but forced it back down before it got out of control. When he got frustrated, he made stupid mistakes that his sister would undoubtedly capitalize on. That was how it had always worked in the past; Azula would get under his skin, he would get mad, his form would get sloppy and she would defeat him without breaking a sweat. He would end up beating himself more often than not.

Lee dropped back down into his ready position; if his sister wanted to talk, then he would let her talk. Azula- who looked slightly annoyed that her brother refused to be baited- squared herself up and sent twin blasts of flame from her fingertips which were met by carefully aimed attacks from the former prince. Dodging her brother's attempts to kill her, Azula retreated further back into the shrubbery. Lee moved to close the distance between then when he found his path suddenly blocked off by two pillars of earth that had suddenly chosen to arise out of the ground.

Barely managing to avoid being squashed by the dirt masses, Lee spun and saw two Dai Lee agents coming towards him from different angles. Cursing, the firebender sent a blast of flames to the closer one coming in on his right. The agent dodged then, with a short hop, sent a miniature wave of dirt hurtling towards former prince.

Before Lee could react, the wave of earth coming towards him met and broke against a wall of earth that arose in front of him. Meanwhile, taking advantage of the distraction, Azula broke from her position by the trees and began running towards the wall that encircled the perimeter of the Forbidden City. The Dai Lee agent who had coming in on Lee's left- a tall monster of a man- suddenly broke off his run and began following in wake of the princess.

"Sorry! A couple of them got away from me; these guys were better than I thought."

Lee looked over to see the blind earthbender jogging towards him; the firebender noticed that she was winded and had a few bruises, but otherwise looked no worse for wear. She cocked her head in the direction that the Dai Lee agent and Azula had run off in.

"Is that Princess Psycho running away?! We've got to get after her before she bugs out!"

Toph immediately followed after; reluctantly, Lee followed. The scarred firebender knew better than to think that his sister was trying to escape. She was letting them see her back so that they would stick their necks out; and she would be there to cut them. Still, just leaving her to her own devices would be stupid.

Reaching the wall, Azula had her Dai Lee agent create a platform of earth for them to stand on and had him start moving that platform up the stone wall. Reaching the wall a few seconds after Azula and her agent had already left; Toph and Lee copied the maneuver and sped up the wall after them. Looking up at their quarry, the scarred firebender cursed as he saw several blue fireballs arcing down towards them.

"Watch out," he warned.

"Um…BLIND!!!"

Ignoring the snarky comment, Lee moved to defend the earthbender, shielding her from the falling flames. He wasn't able to return fire before they reached the top of the wall. Hopping off of the platform and onto the battlement Lee and Toph stood across from their adversaries. Azula- dwarfed by the earthbender that stood behind her but still appearing to be the greater of the two- stood with a neutral expression on her face and stared at her opposite numbers.

"You know, you've really surprised me today Zuko."

She narrowed her eyes. "All those years in barbarian lands have turned you into a real _annoyance_."

"I've only become what I've needed to become," the former prince spat back. "And I've got our _father_ to thank for that."

Lee spoke the word father as if it left some foul aftertaste in his mouth. Azula shook her head and '_tut, tutted_' sarcastically.

"Really Zuzu, have you no shame? To speak such a way about your own flesh and blood; you truly are the lowest of the low!"

Lee laughed. It was a harsh, mirthless, bestial sound; more like the barking of a hound than something that could come from the throat of a man.

"Ozai should be proud! I've become the son he's always wanted; you should count yourself lucky. If I had been like this from the very beginning then dad would never have needed you."

The neutral look on Azula's face slipped, replaced by anger as the quick temper that was her family's birthright flared. Lee quirked an eyebrow at her reaction; he had had no idea that that little dig he had made would have such an effect.

"Take care of the spare," Azula said through gritted teeth.

Behind his sister's body, Lee saw the giant earthbender going through an earthbending form. The firebender squared himself up to receive whatever attack the Dai Lee agent was going to throw, but was surprised to hear the masonry behind him imploding. Looking behind him, Lee was treated to the sight of seeing a very surprised blind earthbender falling through the air. Turning back around, he was just quick enough to catch Azula's rush.

While the Dai Lee agent jumped off of the battlement after Toph, the Princess of Fire advanced. Performing a front flip to add some power to her attack, she shot a blast of blue flames from her feet. Lee, now familiar with the move, immediately rolled out of the way. The scarred firebender's maneuver only took himself half as far as he anticipated as he found himself rolling into the raised wall of the battlement. It was then that Lee realized why Azula had gone to so much trouble to him up here.

"Not so easy to dodge around up here, isn't it big brother."

Damn her! She'd turned the environment to her advantage; they were squared off against one another in what was effectively a traditional Agni Kai. No wild dodging, no running away; just a straight up test of power.

From his low position the former prince performed a leg sweep and sent a lash of flame at his sister's legs before hopping up on his feet and sending a flame from his fist. Instead of dodging around the attacks, Azula stood rooted in place and received the attacks, dissipating both. Taking an aggressive step forward, the princess went on the attack. Using pinpoint attacks, Azula sent a series of fire blasts towards her brother feet and other extremities.

Unable to properly block attacks coming in at such a low angle and unable to dodge to effectively due to the lack of space on the battlement, Lee was forced to dissipate the flames dancing around his ankles as best he could while attempting to counterattack. Though able to dispel some of the flames he could feel his toes and shins burning as his clothes and boots began to catch fire.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, Lee ran forward. Encasing both fists in flames, the former prince bulled his way through fireblast after fireblast. Though he was burned, he never faltered in his stride, pure desperation fueling his resilience. It was all or nothing now. In a test of firebending strength, there was no way he could defeat Azula; she was just more powerful than he was. But physically, he was still superior. If he could just get his hands on her, get close enough so that her superior firebending skill and power wouldn't matter….

Rearing back with both hands and putting as much power as he could into the strike, Lee brought twin hammers of flame down on Azula. There was a flash of light and for a moment the scarred firebender found himself blinded before being hit by an awful wave of heat and fire before being thrown backwards and slamming onto the ground, his head snapping back against the stone of the battlement.

Azula blinked several times to clear the stars from her eyes. Her palms were smoking and her hair, singed and frazzled, hung about her shoulders as she looked down at her leveled opponent.

Lee watched through bleary eyes as she strolled over to the edge of the battlement and looked out into the city, barely sparing a glance at his halting attempts to get back on his feet. Azula looked up into the sky, as if searching for something. Then she began to laugh; summoning a fireball, she shot it into the air to watch it burst in a brilliant blue explosion.

"Well would you look at that, they're right on time!"

From his back, the scarred firebender looked up into the sky to see what his sister was so happy about. At first he couldn't see anything, but then as he looked closer he made out the form of dozens of war balloons hovering over the palace. The scarred firebender watched in steadily growing horror as lines were thrown over the sides of every balloon and squads of Fire Nation troopers began sliding down. Lee had no doubt that they would be swarming over the palace grounds like red ants that had just had their colony kicked over.

"I have to say Zuzu, you were very impressive," the Princess of the Fire Nation said breathlessly.

"I'm not just saying that either, by the way. But then, you know that I am not one to give out compliments easily. You actually came close to winning a few times. But…"

She turned and smiled down at him; her grin was the picture of innocence, but Lee could see the sadism hiding just beneath the surface. She walked over to him and lightly placed a boot on his chest.

"…the fact remains that you _didn't_ win, brother and that you can _never_ win against me."

Lee wanted nothing more at that second than to tear her to pieces with his bare hands. There she stood, smugly looking down on him. He was a bug to her; an insect to be squashed at her leisure. If only he had the power to move his body; if only the burning in his muscles could subside just a little bit. If only…if only….if only….if….only!

"Do you want to know the reason why you can never win against me Zuzu? Here let me show you."

Reaching down, Azula grabbed a handful of Lee's hair and yanked the defeated firebender upright. Pulling him to his feet the princess turned his head towards the city.

"Look out there Zuko. Tell me, what do you see?"

Even in his half dazed state, the former prince's eyes widened. He saw Ba Sing Se…. and it was burning! ALL of Ba Sing Se, everywhere his eyes turned; there were fires everywhere. Why? What was going on? What did she do?

"You see? The reason why I win is because I have the wisdom to see past my own nose, Zuzu. When I took over the Palace and killed the Earth Kingdom generals, what do you think is the first thing I did? I sent some Dai Lee to open the walls and let our army in! I thought ahead; I made a plan and I executed it, the same way I was able to lure you up onto this wall. I play to my advantage, but you? You never learned how to do that; you were always so focused on what was right in front of you, you never thought about anyone sneaking up from behind. If by some miracle you had defeated me, you could have had a chance of getting away. But that slim chance is gone now; there is no way that you can get out of this palace alive now."

She was right. Lee couldn't even try and deny the fact he was trapped. He could do nothing while Azula was here watching over him; if he tried it would just give her the last excuse she needed to kill him. The only reason he wasn't already a corpse was because of Azula's pathological need to gloat over her enemies.

Stopping to catch her breath after her monologue, the triumphant princess let go of her brother and left him to slump bonelessly against the battlement, the full weight of his defeat crashing down on him. Azula, content for the moment to let him wallow in his failure, signaled to her troops on the ground. As soon as someone came to collect her brother, she could get back to the business of rounding up the avatar and his little band of misfits. Zuko had made her waste enough time as it was; hopefully, Mai and Ty Lee had managed to dispatch the little airbender and his allies.

Azula's train of thought was broken by a resounding crash from down below them.

"What!?"

Going over to the edge of the battlement the Princess of the Fire Nation was shocked to see that two of her war balloons had crashed and were now little more than smoking wrecks on the ground below. She looked up and saw that more and more were dropping as…something was tearing through them with a vengeance. Squinting against the darkness Azula cursed under her breath; it was the avatar! Her beautiful war balloons were being torn asunder by that airbender brat and her men looked powerless to stop him.

She would have to take care of this herself. Splitting the positive and negative energies of her body, Azula took careful aim and fired. The burnt ozone smell of a fresh lightning strike filled Lee's nostrils. He watched as the deadly arc of electricity left his sister's fingertips and streaked across the sky to strike the enraged avatar… in the shoulder!

Lee, who was able to shakily push himself onto his feet heard his sister curse foully as the monstrously powerful airbender suddenly turned his fury in the direction of the attack. Without preamble the possessed avatar sped towards them, maelstrom force winds whipping around his body. Both the princess and the prince dropped low to avoid Aang as he flew past overhead; despite these both of them were nearly pulled from the battlements by the fierce winds swirling around the avatar's body.

Barely stopping herself from being pulled over the edge of the battlements, Azula blew an errant strand of hair out of her face and watched the avatar fly into the distance and bank around clearly intent on making another run over them.

As the avatar was making his way back around, Azula concentrated on shaping the lightning in her body; she would wait for the airbender to pass over them once again so that she could shoot him while he was over the palace grounds where her troops could secure the body. Her concentration was flawless; she was not going to miss this time.

Unfortunately for the princess, her flawless concentration was focused on the wrong person. Out of the corner of her eye, Azula saw the tongue of flame.

'_Zuko!_'

She should have killed that pest outright! Turning on her brother, she saw as he forced his burned and battered body into one final attack. Azula cursed in rage; she couldn't firebend until she had expelled the lightning from her body. She'd have to waste this shot on Zuko or else he would kill her.

"WHY DO YOU INSIST ON GETTING IN THE WAY?!"

She pointed her fingers directly at his hear, fully intending to kill him as quickly as possible. Before the lightning could leave her fingers however, her hand was enveloped by his.

The former prince felt the lightning running through his body once again; it felt different this time- less painful, more energizing. The fire siblings stared into each other's golden eyes; Azula's taunting- as if to say…

'_Well, what're you going to do?_'

Lee literally had less than a second to figure that out. If he redirected the lightning that he had absorbed back at Azula at this range, they would both be killed. As attractive as the prospect of a fried Azula was to him, Lee was in no hurry to die just yet. If he shot it away from them both, he would give her an opening to shove a fireball through his chest; under that plan he would be the only one to die. In that half second, the former prince came to his decision.

Letting the lightning surge up from his belly, Lee pointed his fingers and shot out a bolt of lightning towards the flying avatar.

Azula watched in confusion as the lightning struck the glowing airbender in the upper body. The light of the Avatar State faltered as the wounded avatar descended slowly before finally failing and falling freely towards the ground.

The shock was frozen on Azula's face, her motionless lips voicing a silent question.

_'Why?'_

Former prince enlightened her.

"You're a big picture person, right?" Lee said. "So in the big picture, which one of us is more important to your goals; me or him?"

She smirked; he should have known betterr than to try and bluff with her. "You've killed him; I don't have to rush to recover a corpse."

"You can't be sure about that," he stated back. "My aim was never as flawless as yours, but you know that I'm pretty good. Trust me, he's alive!"

Azula's features twisted into a hate filled scowl and Lee knew his words had struck a nerve. She was going over things in her mind. The avatar had fallen outside of the wall and currently, she was the closest one to the body; but if she wanted to claim it she would have to let Zuko go. She could try killing him first, but her brother wouldn't go down without a fight and she didn't have time for a fight right now.

Lee let go of her hand and took a step back.

"So, what are you going to do," he asked dispassionately.

Azula hesitated; for a moment Lee was afraid that she would try to attack him- she definitely looked like she wanted to. After a few more tense moments and a hate-filled glare, she turned around and headed for the stairs.

* * *

"AANG!!"

The yell ripped through Katara's throat as she saw the lightning strike the little airbender.

"HOLD ON," Sokka yelled, whipping the reigns on Appa and sending the giant bison into a nosedive, desperately trying to reach the boy on the ground before the enemy could get their hands on him.

"What! What happened," Toph yelled from her place in the saddle; the water siblings had managed to pick her up out of a group of Fire Nation troopers when they were flying by on Appa.

"He's been hit, Aangs been hit!"

"By who?"

"Azula," Sokka said coldly. "It had to be; nobody else we know can use lightning!"

"It doesn't matter who did it," Katara snapped. "We have to get to him and make sure he's alright!"

"We will," Sokka snapped back while maneuvering the bison in for a landing.

The giant creature came down and skidded to a stop next to its master. Wasting no time, Katara and Toph hopped off Appa's back. Picking up the avatar's limp body from the ground the two girls manhandled the airbender up the bison's tail and into the saddle.

"Yip, Yip."

As Ba Sing Se fell away beneath them, Katara popped to top off of the vial around her neck and used it on the angry red wound on Aang's body. A single, silent stream of tears streaked down one side of face.

"How could this have happened," the waterbender questioned, giving voice to the question that was on all of their minds.

How could things have gone so wrong?

Sokka looked down upon the impenetrable city; so much for the impenetrable part. It was all burning to the ground now. He couldn't watch it; he turned his eyes away and focused on flying Appa as far away from the place as possible. This city and the Earth Kingdom had fallen.

"So…what are we going to do now," Toph asked.

No one could answer her.

**Epilogue**

The sun, bright and cheerful, rose over the devastation that the Fire Nation had wrought across the grand city of Ba Sing Se. The fires that had been started by the invading army had cut a horrific swathe across the face of the city; all three rings- so separated in times of peace- had been made equal in times of war. They had all been laid bare by the merciless flames.

The Lower Ring, however, had been hit the worst. The combination of massive amounts of people living on top of each other in flimsy wood and paper tenements had made for a truly epic loss of life. The horrific scent of burned human skin and hair hung heavy in the air and filled the hooded refugee's nostrils. The people of this ring- those that were still able to walk- roamed the streets in a daze, scrounging through the debris, looking for food, valuables, and loved ones that they had lost in the blaze of the previous night.

He watched them impassively. His heart didn't move; his hand didn't shake. He knew the truth; this is what the Fire Nation did to the world. This is what his father did to the world.

This was what he was _going_ to do to their world.

He could see it now; the setting would be different, but the scene would be the same. He would bring the horrors that he had experienced to their doorsteps. He would tear down all of the great works of the House of Sozin and pull them all down to where he was standing. The monster in his heart crowed with joy at the thought.

It would be magnificent.

* * *

_Aaaannnnddd.... that's my warped take on the end of Book II. I hope I didn't turn anybody off with how long it was, but this chapter kind of took on a life of it's own after a while. Now that this is done, I'm going to take a little break, maybe write a few short stories, and then return with Book III. _

_Questions will be answered! Even more questions will arise! Stay on the lookout!_

_One Love, SlimJames_


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